

i 



HISTORY 

OF 

THE TRANSMISSION OF ANCIENT BOOKS 
• TO MODERN TIMES; 



TOGKTHER WITH 

THE PROCESS OF HISTORICAL PROOF; 

0I{, 

A CONCISK ACCOUNT OF THE MEANS 

BY WHICH THE GENUINENESS OP ANCIENT LITERATURE GENERALLY, 

AND THE AUTHENTICITY OF HISTORICAL WORKS ESPECIALLY, 

ARE ASCERTAINED; 

INCLUDING INCIDENTAL REAIARKS 

UPON THE REL^VTIVE STRENGTH OF THE EVIDENCE USUALLY ADDUCED 

IN BEHALF OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 



BY ISAAC TAYLOR. 

n /I - ■ 

, i y ' '' y VERI SCIENTIA VINDEX. 



6 



LONDON: ^ 

JACKSON AND WALFORD, 

18, ST. PAUL'S CHUUCHYMID. 

1859. 






LONDON : 
PRINTED BY RICHARD CLAY, BREAD STREET UILL. 



o 



P E E P A C E. 



Two books whicli appeared more tlian thirty years 
ago, and whicli have been long out of print, are brought 
into one in this volume. The second of them— the 
" Process of Historical Proof," was, in fact, a sequel 
to the first— the " History of the Transmission of 
Ancient Books to Modern Times." In now reprint- 
ing the two, as one, it has not been difficult to give 
continuity to the whole : this has been efiected, partly 
^by removing from each volume portions which seemed 
to be of secondary importance, and to be not closely 
related to the principal intention of the work ; and 
partly by introducing several entire chapters of new 
material ; and by the insertion of additional paragraphs 
throughout. What is new in this volume occurs chiefly 
in the mid portions of it, and at the end. 

In the course of this thirty years, the labours of 
critics, combined with the researches of learned travel- 



IV PEEFACE. 

lers, have thrown much light upon all parts of the 
subject which is compendiously treated in this volume. 
No reader who is fully informed in this department 
wiir need to be told that, within the limits of a volume 
such as this, nothing more than the most concise men- 
tion of these recent labours and researches could be 
attempted: they are referred to only in the way of 
suggestion and of sample. At the first, the two books 
above mentioned were intended to find a place in a 
course of general educational reading; and it is only 
as coming within the range of a purpose such as this, 
that the Reprint is now offered to the public. 

In excluding from the Reprint some chapters of the 
two volumes which related expressly to the Biblical 
argument, or " Christian Evidences," I have been influ- 
enced by several reasons — such as these : The first 
of them is this, that what may be regarded as the 
religious aspect of the general subject has no direct 
claim to be included in the treatment of it. In the 
next place, I have believed — and think so decisively — 
that, for the very purpose of bringing the Biblical 
argument home, with the greatest force, to the convic- 
tions of intelligent young persons, the subject should be 
fully understood in its broadest aspect. When it is thus 



PREFACE. V 

presented, and when it is thus understood, well-informed 
and ingenuous persons will see and feel, irresistibly, 
that, as compared with any other mass of facts belonging 
to literary antiquarianism, and to historic evidence, the 
Biblical evidence is many times more ample, and various, 
and is more unquestionably certain, than even the best 
and the surest of those masses of facts. 

There is yet another reason that has induced me to 
retrench, in this Keprint, much that, thirty years ago, 
might seem proper to the treatment of the subject. In 
this course of time a great change has had place upon 
the field of argument touching Christianity and its 
origin. Although disbelief may have spread widely 
of late, tlie argument concerning Christianity has been 
narrowed on every side of it. Much that, a while ago, 
was thought to need the production of proof, has, within 
a few years, quite ceased to be spoken of as questionable. 
Several elaborate and ingenious endeavours to bring, 
first, the documents of Christianity, and then, the historic 
import of those documents, into doubt, have signally 
failed, and in fact they are abandoned as nugatory 
and hopeless. It would, therefore, be a superfluous 
labour at this time to defend positions which have 
ceased to be assailed^ 



VI PREFACE. 

The course of adverse thought, at this time, in relation 
to the religion of Christ — the only religion concerning 
which any question can be raised — has this tendency, 
namely, to divert attention by all means, and as much 
as possible, from the ])ast ; and to engage all attention, 
and to concentrate it, upon the present moment^ and upon 
its tangible and secular interests. This is now the aim 
of those writers, in the departments of Philosophy — phy- 
sical and abstract, who would subvert Christianity, and 
who labour to do so by drawing the thoughts of the 
educated classes away from it — away from its neigh- 
bourhood. If it be so, then it must be well for those 
who take the other side, to do what they may for calling 
back the same classes, and for challenging them to 
acquaint themselves anew with History, and to assure 
themselves of its incontestible certainty. 



Stanford Kivers, 
February, 1859. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

INTENTION OF THE PRESENT ARGUMENT 1 



CHAPTER II. 

STATEMENT OP THE CASE, AS TO THE AUTHENTICITY OF ANCIENT 
BOOKS 



CHAPTER III. 

THE DATE OF ANCIENT WORKS, INFERRED FROM THE QUOTATIONS 

AND REFERENCES OF CONTEMPORARY AND SUCCEEDING WRITERS . 28 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE ANTIQUITY AND GENUINENESS OP ANCIENT BOOKS MAY BE 
INFERRED PROM THE HISTORY OF THE LANGUAGES IN WHICH 
THEY ARE EXTANT 36 



CHAPTER V. 

ANCIENT METHODS OP WRITING, AND THE MATERIALS OF BOOKS . . 41 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VI. 

PAGE 

CHANGES INTRODUCED IN THE COURSE OF TIME IN THE FORMS OF 

LETTERS, AND IN THE GENERAL CHARACTER OF WRITING .... 52 

CHAPTER VII. 

THE COPYISTS ; AND THE PRINCIPAL CENTRES OF THE COPYING 



BUSINESS 



61 



CHAPTER VIII. 

INDICATIONS OF THE SURVIVANCE OF ANCIENT LITERATURE, THROUGH 
A PERIOD EXTENDING FROM THE DECLINE OF LEARNING IN THE 
SEVENTH CENTURY, TO ITS RESTORATION IN THE FIFTEENTH ... 77 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY .... 97 



CHAPTER X. 

SEVERAL METHODS AVAILABLE FOE ASCERTAINING THE CREDIBILITY 

OF ANCIENT HISTORICAL WORKS 102 



CHAPTER XL 

EXCEPTIONS TO WHICH THE TESTIMONY OF HISTORIANS, ON PARTI- 
CULAR POINTS, MAY BE LIABLE 119 



CHAPTER XII. 

CONFIRMATIONS OP THE EVIDENCE OF ANCIENT HISTORIANS, DE- 
RIVABLE FROM INDEPENDENT SOURCES . 132 



CONTENTS. IX 



CHAPTER Xlir. 

PAGE 
GENERAL PRINCIPLES, APPLICABLE TO QUESTIONS OF THE GENUINE- 
NESS AND AUTHENTICITY OF ANCIENT RECORDS 160 



CHAPTER XIV. 



RELATIVE STRENGTH OF THE EVIDENCE WHICH SUPPORTS THE GENU- 
INENESS AND AUTHENTICITY OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES . . . .177 



CHAPTER XY. 

ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE PRECEDING STATEMENTS : — A MORNING AT 

THE BRITISH MUSEUM 204 



CHAPTER XVI. 

FACTS RELATING TO THE CONSERVATION, AND LATE RECOVERY, OF 

SOME ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS 226 



CHAPTER XVII. 

THE PROCESS OF HISTORIC EVIDENCE EXEMPLIFIED IN THE INSTANCE 



OF HERODOTUS 



267 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

METHOD OF ARGUING FROM THE GENUINENESS, TO THE AUTHENTICITY 

OP THE HISTORY OF HERODOTUS ...•. 306 

CHAPTER XIX. 

EXAMPLES OF IMPERFECT HISTORICAL EVIDENCE : — nERODOTUS . . S36 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XX. 

PAGE 
RECENT EXPLORATIONS, CONFIRMATORY OP THE TRUTH OP ANCIENT 

HISTORY : HERODOTUS AND BEROSUS 358 



CHAPTER XXI. 

INFERENTIAL HISTORIC MATERIALS 371 

CHAPTER XXII. 

THE MODERN JERUSALEM — A VOUCHER FOR THE LITERATURE OF ITS 

ANCIENT OCCUPANTS 399 



HISTORY 

OF THE 

TEANSMISSION OF ANCIENT BOOKS. 



CHAPTEE I. 

INTENTION OF THE PRESENT ARGUMENT. 

The credit of ancient literature, tlie certainty of history, 
and the truth of religion, are all involved in the secure 
transmission of ancient books to modern times. Many of 
the facts connected with the history of this transmission 
are to be found, more or less distinctly mentioned, in 
every work in which the claims of the Holy Scriptures are 
advocated. But these facts are open to much misappre- 
hension when they are brought together to subserve the 
purposes of a single argument. It is the intention 
of this volume therefore to lay them before general 
readers, as they stand apart from controversy, and as if 
no interests more important than those of literature were 
implicated in the result of the statements we have to 
make. 

Nothing can be more equitable than that the genuine- 
ness and authenticity of the Jewish and Christian 
Scriptures should be judged of by the rules that are 
applied to all other ancient books ; nor is anything more 

B 



Z INTENTION OF THE 

likely to produce a firm and intelligent conviction 
of the validity of the claims advanced for the Holy 
Scriptures, than a clear understanding of the relative 
value of the evidence which supports them. To furnish 
the means therefore of instituting a comparison, so just 
in itself, and so necessary to a fair examination of the 
most important of all questions, is the design of these 
pages. 

As this volume makes no pretension to communicate 
information to those who are already conversant with 
matters of antiquity, literary or historical, whatever 
might seem recondite, or what is still involved in con- 
troversy, has heen avoided. Nor will these pages he 
encumbered with numerous references, which, though 
easily amassed, would increase the size of the volume 
without being serviceable to the class of readers for 
whom the author now writes. No facts are adduced 
which may not readily be substantiated by any one who 
has access to a library of moderate extent. But a few 
works, not often met with in private collections, are 
named at the foot of the page where special information 
has been derived from them. 

The principal facts of ancient history, and the authen- 
ticity of the works from which chiefly our knowledge of 
antiquity is derived, are now freely admitted, after a few 
exceptive instances have been set off, which are unproved, 
or doubtful. 

Yet on this subject, as well as upon some others, 
there often exists, at the same time, too much faith, and 
too little; for, from a want of acquaintance with the 



5 



PRESENT ARGUMENT. 6 

details on whicli- a rational conviction of the genuineness 
and validity of ancient records may be founded, many 
persons, even though otherwise well informed, feel that 
they have hardly an alternative between a simple accept- 
ance of the entire mass of ancient history, or an equally 
indiscriminate suspicion of the whole. And when it 
happens that a particular fact comes to be questioned, or 
when the genuineness of some ancient book is argued, 
such persons, conscious that they are little familiar with 
the nature of the evidence on the strength of which the 
question tm^ns, and perceiving that the controversy in- 
volves many recondite and uninteresting researches, or 
that it rests upon the validity of minute criticisms, 
either recoil altogether from the argument, or they accept 
an opinion, without inquiry, from that party on whose 
judgment they think they may most safely rely. 

And it is true that such controversies may, for the 
most part, very properly be left in the hands of critics and 
antiquarians, whose tastes and acquirements qualify them 
for investigations that can scarcely be made intelligible 
to the mass of readers. Nor are the facts involved in 
these controversies often of any importance to the general 
student of history; for they do not extensively affect 
the integrity of that department of literature to which 
they belong. Yet it must be allowed that \hQ principles 
on which such questions are argued, and the facts con- 
nected with the transmission of ancient literature to 
modern times, are in themselves highly important ; and 
that they well deserve more attention than they often 
receive. Nor are these facts, when separated from 

b2 



4 INTENTION OF THE 

particular controversies, at all abstruse, or difficult of 
apprehension. Indeed much of the information that 
bears upon the subject is in itself curious and highly 
interesting, as well as important. 

Even in relation to those works of genius, the value of 
w^iicli consists in their intrinsic merits, and which would 
not be robbed of their beauties, though they were dis- 
covered to be spurious, an assurance of their genuine- 
ness is felt by every reader to conduce greatly to the 
pleasure they impart. But a much stronger feeling 
naturally leads us to demand this assurance in tlie 
perusal of works which profess to have reality only 
for their matter : — Truth is the very subject of History : 
— the adducing of satisfactory evidence, therefore, of the 
integrity of its records may well be deemed an indis- 
pensable preliminary to a course of study in that depart- 
ment of knowledge. 

Besides its peculiar propriety in connexion with the 
study of history, the argument in support of the genuine- 
ness and authenticity of the existing remains of ancient 
literature is singularly fitted to afford a useful exercise to 
the reasoning faculties ; and perhaps, better than any 
other subject, it calls into combined action those powers of 
the mind that are separately employed in mathematical, 
physical, or legal pursuits, and which, in the actual occa- 
sions of common life, can subserve our welfare only so 
far as they move in unison. 

But reasons of still greater moment recommend the 
subject of the following pages to the attention of the 
reader ; for it is certain that every one, whether or not 



PRESENT ARGUMENT. 5 

he is contented to admit, without inquiry, tlie autlien- 
ticity of profane liistory, lias the highest personal con- 
cern in the truth of that particular portion of ancient 
history with which the Christian religion is connected ; 
and, therefore, every one should think himself bound to 
convince himself of the genuineness of the books in 
which its principles are contained. And as the facts on 
which this proof depends are precisely of the same kind 
in profane, as in sacred literature, and as the same prin- 
ciples of evidence are applicable to all questions relating 
to the genuineness of ancient books, it is highly de- 
sirable that the proof of the genuineness of the Sacred 
Writings should be viewed — in its jplace^ as forming a 
part only of a general argument, which bears equally 
upon the entire literary remains of antiquity. For it is 
only when so viewed, that the comparative strength and 
completeness of the proof which belongs to this par- 
ticular case, can be duly estimated. When exhibited in 
this light it will be seen that the integrity of the records 
of the Christian faith is substantiated by evidence in a 
tenfold proportion more various, copious, and conclusive, 
than that which can be adduced in support of any other 
ancient writings. If, therefore, the question had no other 
importance belonging to it than what may attach to a 
purely literary inquiry, or if only the strict justice of 
the case were regarded, the authenticity of the Jewish 
and Christian Scriptures could never come to be con- 
troverted, till the entire body of classical literature 
had been proved to be spurious. 

Many — perhaps most persons, in perusing works on 



6 INTENTION OF THE 

the evidences of revealed religion, are apt to suppose 
that the sacred books only, or that these books, more 
than any others, stand in need of laboured argumenta- 
tion in support of their authenticity; while, in truth, 
these books, less than any other ancient writings, need 
a careful investigation of their claims ; for the proof 
that establishes them is on all points obvious and 
redundant. Indeed this very redundancy and variety of 
evidence — especially if it be unskilfully adduced, may 
actually produce confusion and hesitancy, rather than an 
affirmed conviction, in unpractised minds ; and this per- 
plexity is likely to be increased by the very idea of the 
serious importance of the subject. Thus it may happen 
that those very facts which, if compared with others of a 
similar kind, are susceptible of the most complete proof, 
are actually regarded with the most distrust. 

In presenting to the reader, what might be called — 
the History of the records of History, we shall put him 
in position for tracing the extant works of ancient au- 
thors retrogressively , from modern times, up to the age 
to which they are usually attributed; and then it w411 
be seen on what grounds — under certain limitations — 
the contents of these works are admitted to be authentic, 
and worthy of credit. In attending to the facts which 
we have to adduce it will appear that we are well war- 
ranted in accepting certain works as having been written 
in the age to which they are usually assigned, and by 
the authors to whom they are commonly attributed ; and 
also in believing that they have not suffered material 
corruption in the course of transcription. 



PRESENT AEaUMENT. 7 

Further than this we may advance, and go on to show 
the grounds of our belief that such or such an author 
wrote what he believed to be true, and that he possessed 
authentic information on the subject of which he treats. 
The proof in this case must be drawn from the style and 
character of the work itself; from the circumstances that 
attended its first publication ; from the corroborative 
evidence of contemporary writers ; and from the agree- 
ment of the narrative in particular instances with exist- 
ing relics of antiquity. 

Evidence in support of the first part of this assumption 
will prove that the works in question are not forgeries : 
— evidence establishing the second, will show that they 
are not fictions. 

It is obvious that these assumptions are not only dis- 
tinct, but that they are independent of each other : — for 
one of them may be conclusively established, while the 
other is either disproved, or may remain questionable. A 
book may contain a true narrative of events_, though not 
written by the author, or in the age, that has commonly 
been supposed. Or, on the other hand, it may undoubt- 
edly be the production of the alleged author, but may 
deserve little credit as a professed record of facts. Thus, 
for example, the Cyropsedia is, on good evidncee, attri- 
buted to Xenophon ; but there is little reason to suppose 
that it deserves to be considered as better than an historical 
romance : — the genuineness of the work is certain ; but 
its authenticity as a history is, at the best, questionable. 
Yet the first of these propositions is more independent 
of the second, than the second can be of the first. For 



8 INTENTION, &C. 

wlien the antiquity and genuineness of an historical work 
has been clearly demonstrated, it is seldom difficult to 
fix the degree of credit that is due to the author ; or to 
discover those particular points on which there may be 
reason to suspect his veracity, or to question the sound- 
ness of his judgment, or to doubt the accuracy of his 
information. 

It is then for the purpose of rendering these arguments 
and inferences intelligible, and more satisfactory also, 
than otherwise they would be, that, after giving a brief 
statement of this argument, we shall proceed to bring 
forward what relates to the manipulative and mechani- 
cal methods of multiplying copies of books, and to the 
diffusion, and preservation of these copies, in ancient 
times; — that is to say, in all times anterior to the 
invention of Printing, in the fifteenth century. 



CHAPTEE II, 

STATEMENT OF THE CASE, AS TO THE AUTHENTICITY 
OF ANCIENT BOOKS. 

The antiquity and genuineness of the extant remains of 
ancient literature may be established by three lines of 
proof that are altogether independent of each other; 
and though, in any particular instance, one, or even two 
out of the three should be wanting, the remaining one 
may alone be perfectly conclusive: — When the three 
concur, they present a redundant demonstration of the 
facts in question. 

The first line of proof relates to the history of certain 
copies of a work, which are now in existence. 

The second — -traces the history of a work as it may be 
collected from the series of references made to it by suc- 
ceeding writers. 

The third — is drawn from the known histoxy of the 
language in which the work is extant. 

For understanding what belongs to the first of these 
three lines of evidence we ought to be acquainted with 
various particulars relating to the modes of writing 
practised among ancient nations, and to the materials 



10 STATEMENT OF THE CASE, 

employed, and to what may be called tlie business-system 
by means of whicli an ancient writer placed himself in 
communication with his readers. 

In many, or in most of these particulars ancient and 
modern usages are very dissimilar. But something more 
should first be said indicative of the purpose with a 
view to which these facts are brought forward. 

It need scarcely be said that the antiquity and in- 
tegrity of a book can be open to no question, if in any 
case the existence of any one copy of it can be traced 
back, with certainty, to the time of its first publication. 
If, for example, a manuscript of a work in the author's 
handwriting were still extant, and if the fact of its being 
such could by any means be proved, our argument would 
be concluded, and any other evidence must be deemed 
superfluous. There are however few such unquestion- 
able autograjphs to be found, even of modern works, and 
none, of any ancient one. Yet the circumstances attend- 
ing the preservation and transmission of manuscripts 
are, in some instances, as we shall see, such as to prove 
the antiquity and genuineness of a work with little less 
certainty than as if the very first copy of it were in 
existence. 

But before we enter into the particulars of this proof 
it should be mentioned — especially as we intend to follow 
the order of time retrogressively, that the history of 
manuscripts need not be traced through any later period 
than that of the early part of the fifteenth century, when 
most of the classic authors passed through the press. 
For the invention of printing has served, as well to 



AS TO ANCIENT BOOKS. 11 

ascertain, beyond doubt, the existence of books at cer- 
tain dates, as to secure the text from extensive interpo- 
lation and corruption. A printed book is not susceptible 
of subsequent interpolation or alteration by the pen : it 
bears also a date, and the issuing of different editions of 
the same work from distant places, would render any 
falsification of date in one of them, or any material cor- 
ruption of the text by an editor, a nugatory attempt. 
For example, there are now extant, printed copies of the 
history of the Peloponnesian war, dated " Venice, 1502;" 
other copies of an edition of the same work are dated 
" Florence, 1506;" others are dated "Basil, 1540;" and 
others, printed within a few years of the same time at 
Paris and Vienna. On being compared with each other, 
these editions are found to agree in the main ; and yet 
to disagree in many small variations of orthography, 
syntax, or expression ; so as to prove that they were 
derived independently from different manuscripts ; and 
not successively from each other. These printed editions, 
therefore, sufficiently prove the existence of the work in 
the fifteenth century; and also that the text of the 
modern editions has not been materially impaired or 
corrupted during the last four hundred years. 

But let it now be imagined, that there are no other 
means of ascertaining the antiquity and genuineness of 
the classic authors than such as may be collected from 
the history of existing manuscripts. Our object then 
will be to discover to what age they may clearly be 
traced ; and to deduce from the facts some sure in- 
ference relative to the length of time during which 



12 STATEMENT OF THE CASE, 

tliose works have been passing tlirougli tlie hands of 
copyists. 

The date of an ancient manuscript may be ascertained 
by such means as the following : — 

1. Some manuscripts are known to have been care- 
fully preserved in the libraries where they are now 
found, for several centuries : — for not only have they 
been mentioned in the catalogues of the depositories to 
which they belong, but they have been so accurately 
described by eminent scholars of succeeding ages, that 
no doubt can remain of their identity. Or even if they 
have changed hands, the particulars of the successive 
transfers have been authentically recorded. 

2. A large proportion of existing manuscripts are 
found to be dated by the hand of the copyists, and in 
such a manner as to leave no question as to the time 
when the copy was executed. 

3. Many manuscripts have marginal notes, added 
evidently by later hands, which through some inci- 
dental allusion to persons, events, or particular customs, 
or by the use of peculiar forms of expression, indicate 
clearly the age of the notes, and therefore carry that of 
the original manuscript somewhat higher. 

4. The remote antiquity of a manuscript is often 
established by the peculiar circumstance of its existing 
heneath another writing. These re- written manuscripts 
— palimpsests, or rescripts, as they are termed, afford 
the most satisfactory proof of antiquity that can be 
imagined. Parchment, which has always been a costly 
material, came to be greatly enhanced in price at the 



AS TO ANCIENT BOOKS. 13 

time when paper, manufactured from the papyrus of the 
Nile, began to be scarce, and just before the time when 
that formed from cotton — called charta bombycina, was 
brought into general use. At the same period, owing 
to the general decline of learning, the works of the 
classic authors fell into very general neglect. Those, 
therefore, who were copyists oy profession, and the 
monks especially, whose libraries often contained large 
collections of parchment books, availed themselves of 
the valuable material which they possessed, by erasing, 
or washing out, the original writing, and then substi- 
tuting lives of the saints, religious romances, medita- 
tions, or such other inanities as suited the taste of the 
times. Nevertheless, often, the faithful skin, tenacious 
of its pristine honours, retained the traces of the original 
writing with sufficient distinctness to render it still 
legible. These rescripts, therefore, offer to us a double 
proof of the antiquity of the work which first occupied 
the parchment ; for in most cases the date of the monk- 
ish writing is easily ascertained to be of the twelfth, or 
even the ninth century. The writing which first occu- 
pied such parchments must, of course, be dated con- 
siderably higher ; for it is much more probable that old, 
than that recent books should have been selected for the 
purpose of erasure. Some invaluable manuscripts of 
the Holy Scriptures, and not a few precious fragments 
of classic literature, have been thus brought to light. 

5. The age of a manuscript may often be ascertained, 
with little chance of error, by some such indications as 
the following : — the quality or appearance of the ink ; 



14 STATEMENT OF THE CASE, 

the nature of the material ; that is to say, whether it be 
soft leather, or parchment, or the papyrus of Egypt, or 
the bombycine paper; for these materials succeeded each 
other, in common use, at periods that are well known * 
— the peculiar form, size, and character of the writing ; 
for a regular progression in the modes of writing may 
be traced by abundant evidence through every age from 
the remotest times ; — the style of the ornaments or 
illuminations^ as they are termed, often serves to indicate 
the age of the book which they decorate. 

From such indications as these, more or less definite 
and certain, ancient manuscripts, now extant, are as- 
signed to various periods, extending from the sixteenth, 
to the fourth century of the Christian era ; or perhaps, 
in one or two instances, to the third, or second. Very 
few can claim an antiquity so high as the fourth cen- 
tury: but not a few are safely attributed to the seventh; 
and a great proportion of those extant were unquestion- 
ably executed in the tenth ; while many belong to the 
following four hundred years. It is, however, to be 
observed, that some manuscripts, executed at so late a 
time as the thirteenth, or even the fifteenth century, 
afford clear internal evidence that, by a single remove 
only, the text they contain claims a real antiquity, 
higher than that even of the oldest existing copy of the 
same work. For these older copies sometimes prove, 
by the peculiar nature of the corruptions which have 
crept into the text, that they have been derived through 
a long series of copies ; while perhaps the text of the 
more modern manuscript possesses such a degree of 



AS TO ANCIENT BOOKS. 15 

purity and freedom from all tlie usual consequences of 
frequent transcription, as to make it manifest that the 
copy from which it was taken, was so ancient as not to 
he far distant from the time of the first publication of 
the work. 

Most, if not all, the Eoyal and Ecclesiastical and 
University libraries in Europe, as well as many private 
collections, contain great numbers of these literary relics 
of antiquity: and some of them could furnish manuscripts 
of nearly the entire body of ancient literature. There 
are few of the classic authors that are not still extant in 
several manuscript copies ; and of some, the existing 
copies are almost numberless. 

Although all the larger ancient libraries, such, for 
example, as those of Alexandria, of Constantinople, of 
Athens, and of Rome, were destroyed by the fanaticism 
of barbarian conquerors ; yet so extensive a diffusion of 
the most celebrated works had previously taken place, 
throughout the Roman empire, and beyond its limits, 
that all parts of Europe and Western Asia abounded 
with smaller collections, or with single works in the 
hands of private persons. When learning had almost 
disappeared among the people, monasteries and religious 
houses became the chief receptacles of books ; for almost 
every such establishment included individuals who still 
cultivated literature and the sciences with ardour ; and 
who found no difficulty in amassing almost any quantity 
of this generally neglected property. 

Happily for literature, religious houses were places of 
greater security than even the strongholds of the nobles, 



16 STATEMENT OF THE CASE, 

or the palaces of kings, whicli by conquest or revolution 
were, from time to time, violently rent from tlieir pos- 
sessors. Meantime, these sacred seclusions were usually 
respected, even by the fiercest invaders. Through a 
long course of ages, monasteries'^ were occupied by an 
order of men who succeeded each other in a far more 
tranquil course of transition than has taken place in any 
other instance, that might be named. The property of 
each establishment (and its literary property was always 
highly prized) passed down, from age to age, as if under 
the hand of a permanent proprietor, and it was therefore 
subjected to fewer dispersions or destructions than the 
mutability of human affairs ordinarily permits. 

Every church, and every convent and monastery had 
its library, its librarian, and its other officers, employed 
in the conservation of the books. Connected with the 
library was the Sa^iptorium — the hall or chamber where 
the elder or the educated monks employed themselves 
in making copies of such books as were falling into 
decay ; or of such as there was still some demand for, 
in the open world. 

By means such as these it was that the literature of 
more enlightened ages has been preserved from extinc- 
tion ; and when at length learning revived in the four- 
teenth and fifteenth centuries, a large portion of those 
long-hoarded volumes flowed into the collections of the 
munificent founders of libraries, and there, having be- 
come known to the learned, they were speedily consigned 
to the immortal custody of the press. 

The places in which these remains of ancient literature 



AS TO ANCIENT BOOKS. 17 

had been preserved, during tlie middle ages, were too 
many, and tliej were too distant from eacli otlier, and 
they were too little connected by any kind of intercourse, 
to admit of a combination or conspiracy having for its 
object any supposed purposes of interpolation or corrup- 
tion. Possessing therefore as we do, in most cases, 
copies of the same author, some of which were drawn 
from the monasteries of England, others from those of 
Spain, and others collected in Egypt, Palestine, or Asia 
Minor, if, on comparing them, we find that they agree, 
except in variations of little moment, we have an incon- 
testable proof of the care and integrity with which the 
business of transcription had generally been conducted. 
For it is evident that if the practice of mutilation, inter- 
polation, and corruption, had to any considerable extent 
been admitted, the existing remains of ancient authors, 
after so long a time, would have retained scarcely a 
trace of integrity or uniformity. A licentious practice 
of transcription, operating through the course of a thou- 
sand or fifteen hundred years, must have resulted, not in 
giving us the connected and consistent works we actually 
possess, but only a heterogeneous mass of mangled 
fragments. 

But now, if the general accordance of existing manu- 
scripts attests the prevailing care, and even the scrupu- 
lousness of those through whose hands they passed, the 
peculiar nature of the diversities that do exist among 
the several copies of the same author, serves to establish 
a fact which, if we did not know it by other means, it 
would be of the highest importance to prove: namely, 

a 



18 STATEMENT OF THE CASE, 

that these works had already descended through a long 
course of time, when the existing copies were executed. 
This fact is especially apparent in the case of the earlier 
Greek authors ; for while some copies retain nniformlj 
the peculiarities of the dialect in which the author 
wrote ; in others, these peculiarities are merged in those 
more common forms of the language which prevailed 
after the time of the decline of the Greek literature. 
These deviations in orthography, or in construction, from 
the author's text, were evidently made by successive 
copyists in compliance with the tastes of purchasers of 
books in different countries ; nor were they likely to 
have been effected by transcribers of the middle ages, 
when these books were no longer in use by readers to 
whom the language was vernacular, and to whom, alone, 
an accordance with the colloquial forms of the language 
could be a matter of any importance. 

Books in a dead language, and which can be intended 
for the use of the learned only, will never be accommo- 
dated to the colloquial fashions of an intermediate period. 
Let us consider how it would be in an instance familiar 
to us. If, for example, in examining two editions of 
the poems of Chaucer, one of them should be found to 
retain the original peculiarities of orthography, proper 
to the author's time, while, in the other, those pecu- 
liarities are all softened down into the forms adopted in 
the reign of Elizabeth, we should certainly attribute the 
edition to that period rather than suppose the corrections 
to have been made by a modern editor. 

Again : — some copies of ancient authors present 



AS TO ANCIENT BOOKS. 19 

instances in which, when a passage is compared with the 
same in another copy, it is easy to perceive that an early 
transcriber, having fallen into an error, more than one 
succeeding transcriber has attempted a restoration of the 
genuine reading; for the last conjectural emendation 
has plainly been framed out of two or three prior 
corrections. 

Thus it is, then, that the existing manuscripts of the 
classic authors may be traced up, either by direct evi- 
dence, or by unquestionable inferences, very near to 
the age — and, in many instances — quite up to the age 
when these works were universally diffused, were fami- 
liarly known, and were incessantly quoted by other 
writers ; and when, therefore, the history of each work 
may easily and abundantly be collected from the testi- 
mony of contemporary and succeeding authors. The 
various facts, above alluded to, serve to connect the 
literary remains of antiquity — now in our hands, with 
the period of their pristine existence : — we traverse the 
long era of general ignorance — that wide gulf which 
separates the intelligence and civilization of antiquity 
from the intelligence and civilization of modern times, 
and we land, as it were, upon the native soil of these 
monuments of Mind, and we once more find ourselves 
surrounded by that abundance of evidence which belongs 
to an advanced state of knowledge. We need not wish 
to trace the history of manuscripts further, than to the 
confines of that former world of learning and refinement. 

Indeed we need not be solicitous to trace the history 
of these literary relics a step further than fairly into thi 

c2 



2(T STATEMENT OF THE CASE, 

midst of the dark ages. For even if all external and 
correlative evidence were wanting, and if nothing were 
known concerning the classic authors except this — that, 
such as they now are, they were extant in the tenth 
century, more than enough would be known to make it 
abundantly certain that these works were the product of 
a very different, and of a distant age. The men of those 
times might indeed have been the transcribers and con- 
servators, and perhaps even the admirers, of Thucydides, 
of Xenophon, of Aristophanes, of Plato, of Virgil, of 
Cicero, of Horace, and of Tacitus ; but assuredly they 
were not the authors of books, such as those which bear 
these names. The living pictures of energy, and of 
wisdom, and of liberty, which these monuments of taste 
and genius contain, could never have been imagined in 
the cells of a monastery, nor composed in an age when 
little was to be seen abroad but ignorance, violence, and 
slavery ; and little found within but a dreaming philo- 
sophy, and a degrading superstition. It is not the 
prerogative of the human mind, however great may be 
its native powers, to trespass far beyond the bounds of 
the scene by which it is immediately surrounded, or to 
frame images of things which, in their elements, as well 
as in their adjuncts, belong to a system and an economy 
altogether unknown to the men of that time. To the 
genius of man it is given to imitate, to select, to refine, 
and to exalt ; but not to create. 

The general import of the facts that have thus been 
briefly stated, is this, namely, that the books now extant, 



AS TO ANCIENT BOOKS. 21 

and which are usually attributed to the Greek and 
Roman writers, have, such as we find them, descended 
from a very remote age. But this general affirmation 
must always he understood to include an exception of 
those smaller omissions, additions, and alterations in the 
text, which have taken place, either by design, or inad- 
vertency, in the course of often repeated transcriptions. 

The actual amount and the importance of these cor- 
ruptions of the text of ancient authors is likely to be 
overrated by general readers, who seeing that the sub- 
ject is continually alluded to in critical works, and 
knowing that criticisms upon " various readings " often 
occupy a space five times exceeding that which is filled 
by the text, and that not seldom they become the sub- 
ject of voluminous and angry controversies, are led to 
suppose that questions upon which the learned are so 
long and so seriously employed, cannot be otherwise 
than weighty and substantial. With a view of correct- 
ing this impression, so far as it may be erroneous, we 
shall now briefly explain the general nature, the causes, 
and the extent of these variations and corruptions. 

By far the greater proportion of all "various readings" 
— perhaps nineteen out of twenty, are purely of a verlal 
kind, and they are such as can claim the attention of 
none but philologists and grammarians : a few may 
deserve the notice of every reader of ancient literature ; 
and a few demand the consideration of the student of 
history. But, taken in a mass, the light in ^yhich they 
should be regarded is that of their furnishing a signifi- 
cant and conclusive proof of the care, fidelity, and 



22 STATEMENT OF THE CAS4 

exactness with wHcli tlie business of copying was 
ordinarily conducted. For it is certain that nothing less 
than a high degree, as well of technical correctness, as 
of professional integrity, on the part of those who prac- 
tised this craft, could have conveyed the text of ancient 
authors through a period — in some instances — of two 
thousand years, with alterations so trivial as are those 
which, for the most part, are found actually to have 
taken place. 

When the discrepancies of manuscripts of an author 
are such as materially to affect the sense of a passage 
in itself important, so as to demand the exercise of dis- 
crimination on the part of the student of history, it 
becomes necessary to understand, and to bear in mind, 
what were probably the most common sources of such 
diversities. The following may be named as the most 
common causes of the various readings which are met 
with in comparing several copies of the same ancient 
author. 

1. Nothing can be more probable than that authors 
who long survived the first publication of their works, 
should, from time to time, issue revised copies of them ; 
and each of these altered copies would, if the work 
were in continual request, and were widely diffused, 
become the parent, as we may say, of a family of copies. 
Thus it would be that, without any fault on the part of 
the transcribers, a considerable amount of such diversi- 
ties would be originated, and perpetuated. A large 
proportion, perhaps, of those variations which occupy 
the diligence and acumen of editors and critics, and for 



AS TO ANCIENT BOOKS. 23 

the rectification of which so many learned conjectures 
are often hazarded, have, in fact, arisen from the author's 
own hand in revising the copies which, at intervals, he 
delivered to his amanuenses. The perpetual opportu- 
nity afforded for introducing corrections, when a book 
was continually in request, would not fail to encourage, 
in fastidious authors, the habit of frequent revision : 
meantime transcribers, in distant countries, might have 
no opportunity to collate the earlier with the later ex- 
emplars. This source of various readings seems to have 
been too little adverted to by critics ; though it might 
serve to solve some perplexing questions relative to the 
genuineness of particular expressions or sentences, which 
have fallen under suspicion from their non-existence 
in certain manuscripts. 

2. Some errors would, of course, arise from the mere 
inattention, carelessness, or the ignorance of transcribers; 
and yet fewer, probably, than may at first be imagined ; 
for besides that those who spent their lives in this occu- 
pation would generally acquire a high degree of tech- 
nical accuracy of eye, ear, and hand, and that correctness 
and legibility must have been the qualities upon which, 
principally, the marketable value of books depended ; 
it is known that in the monasteries, from whence the 
greater part of all existing manuscripts proceeded, there 
were persons, qualified by their superior learning for the 
task, whose office it was to revise every book that issued 
from the Scriptorium. Errors of inadvertency must, 
nevertheless, have occurred. If the author to be tran- 
scribed was read by one person, while several wrote 



24 STATEMENT OF THE CASE, 

from liis voice, tlie process would be open, not only to 
the mistakes of the reader's eye, and to those of the 
writer's hand; but especially to those of the writer's 
ear ; for words, similar in sound, might often be substi- 
tuted, one for the other. Instances of this sort are of 
frequent occurrence, and the knowledge of the probable 
cause often serves to suggest the proper correction. If 
the writer read for himself, he wou.ld be liable to mistake 
letters of similar shape — to mistake the sense by a wrong 
division of words in his manner of reading, in conse- 
quence of which he might involuntarily accommodate 
the orthography or the syntax to the supposed sense. 
The frequent use of contractions in writing was a very 
common source of errors ; for many of these abbrevia- 
tions were extremely complicated, obscure, and ambi- 
guous, so that an unskilful copyist was very likely to 
mistake one word for another. No parts of ancient 
books have suffered so much from errors of inadvertency 
as those which relate to numbers ; for as one numeral 
letter was easily mistaken for another, and as neither 
tiie sense of the passage, nor the rules of orthography, 
nor of syntax, suggested the genuine reading, when once 
an error had arisen, it would most often be perpetuated, 
without remedy. It is, therefore, almost always unsafe 
to rest the stress of an argument upon any statement ol 
numbers in ancient writers, unless some correlative com- 
putation confirms the reading of the text. Hence nothing 
can be more frivolous or unfair than to raise an objection 
against the veracity or accuracy of an historian, upon 
some apparent incompatibility in his statement of 



AS TO ANCIENT BOOKS. 25 

numbers. Difficulties of this sort it is much better to 
attribute, at once, to a corruption of the text, than to 
discuss them with ill-spent assiduity. 

3. The assumption of short marginal notes into the 
text, appears to have been a frequent source of various 
readings. When such notes supplied ellipses in the 
author's language, or when they conduced much to the 
perspicuity of an obscure passage, the copyist would be 
very likely to incorporate the exegetical phrase, rather 
than that it should either be lost to the reader, or should 
deform the margin. 

4. Transcribers frequently thought themselves free to 
substitute modern for obsolete words or phrases; and 
sometimes they consulted the wishes of their customers, 
by exchanging the forms of one dialect (of the Greek) 
for those of another; or, more often, for the common 
forms of the language. Alterations of this kind have 
often been the occasion of bringing authentic works 
under needless suspicion; for when the text has con- 
tained words or phrases which are known to belong to 
a later age than that of the supposed author, such incon- 
gruities have seemed to afford proofs of spuriousness. 

5. Intentional omissions, interpolations, or alterations, 
were unquestionably sometimes ventured on by tran- 
scribers. But so many are the means we possess for de- 
tecting any such wilful corruptions — drawn from a com- 
parison of different manuscripts, or from the incongruity 
of the interpolated passage, that there is perhaps, altoge- 
ther, more probability that, from some accidental pecu- 
liarity of style, genuine passages of ancient authors should 



26 

fall under suspicion, tlian that any actually spurious por- 
tions should entirely escape suspicion and detection. 

Of the above-mentioned sources of the various readings 
found in the text of ancient authors j it should be remem- 
bered that the operation of the first was confined to the 
short term of the author's life ; nor indeed, whatever 
may be the amount or importance of variations arising 
from this source, must they go to swell the number of 
corruptions of the text. The second source of variations 
was indeed open during the lapse of many centuries ; 
yet it has always been held in check by the diligent 
collation of copies, on the part of industrious critics, 
from age to age : and a large proportion of errors, arising 
from mere inadvertency, are either so palpable as to 
suggest the means of their own correction ; or they are 
so trivial as to merit no attention, except from those 
who charge themselves with the responsibilities of an 
editor. There is, besides, reason to believe that not 
a few existing copies of the most celebrated authors, 
present a text that has passed through the process of 
transcription not oftener than once or twice ; and that 
each time the copy has been executed with scrupulous 
exactness. Variations arising from the third and fourth 
sources, have perhaps occasioned to critics and editors 
more perplexity than those springing from any other 
cause ; and yet these differences are rarely of any 
moment, so far as the sense of the author is concerned : 
they can be deemed important only when they tend to 
perplex the question of the date or the genuineness of 
a book. Corruptions of the fifth class must be acknow- 



i. 



AS TO ANCIENT BOOKS. 27 

ledged materially to affect the credit and value of ancient 
literature, so far as there can be any reason to suspect 
their existence; and every diligent student of history will 
think the investigation of cases of this kind deserving of 
his utmost attention. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE DATE OF ANCIENT WOEKS, INFERRED FROM THE 
QUOTATIONS AND REFERENCES OF CONTEMPORARY 
AND SUCCEEDING WRITERS, 

Let us now suppose, tliat the Greek and Latin authors 
are extant only in the printed editions — that is to say, 
that every one of the ancient manuscripts has long since 
perished, and that the facts that have been referred to in 
the preceding pages are out of our view, or unknown. 
Our business then would be, to collect from these works 
such a series of mutual references, as should both prove 
the identity of the works now extant with those so 
referred to ; and also fix the relative places of the several 
writers in point of time. 

A single reference, found in one author, to the works 
of another, who, in his turn, needs the same kind of 
authentication, may seem to be a fallacious, or insuffi- 
cient, and obscure kind of proof; for this reference or 
this quotation may possibly be an interpolation ; or the 
reference may be of too slight or indefinite a kind to 
make it certain, that the work now extant is the same as 
that so referred to. In truth, the validity of this kind 
of proof arises from its amount, from its multifariousness, 
and from its incidental character. For although a single 
and solitary testimony may be inconclusive, many 



QUOTATIONS AND EEFERENCES, 29 

hundred independent testimonies, all bearing upon tlie 
same point, are much more than sufficient to remove 
every shadow of doubt ; some of these references may be 
slight and indefinite, but others are full, particular, and 
complete. If some are formal and direct, and such 
therefore as might be supposed to have been inserted 
with a fraudulent design, others are altogether circuitous 
and purely incidental. If some have descended to us 
through the same channels, others are derived from 
sources as far removed as can be imagined from the 
possibility of collusion. 

But a work may happen to want this kind of evi- 
dence, and yet, on other grounds, it may possess a valid 
claim to genuineness. In fact, almost all the existing 
remains of ancient literature are abundantly authenti- 
cated by the numerous and explicit quotations from 
them, or descriptions of them, that occur in other works. 
And there are very few books that do not contain some 
direct or some indirect allusions to other works : so it is 
that the remains of ancient literature, taken as a mass, 
contains within itself the proof of the authenticity of 
each part. 

The nature of the case gives to this body of references 
a pyramidal form. In the most remote age it is, of 
course, small in amount; in the next age it becomes 
much more ample and substantial ; and in later periods, 
it spreads itself over the entire surface of literature. 

The literature of the Greeks was national and original; 
they borrowed from their neighbours less in poetry, 
philosophy, and history, than in religion, or the arts : their 



30 DATE INFERRED FROM 

early writers were not, in the modern sense of the term,' 
men of learning; their works were composed at the 
impulse of genius, and of the moving spirit of the times. 
The habit of literary allusion and quotation had not 
then been formed, nor indeed was it congruous with this 
order of intellectual production ; and yet the early Greek 
writers contain mutual references, which, if not nume- 
rous, are sufficient to establish and ascertain, in most 
instances, the genuineness of each. 

The second period of Greek literature, dating from 
the times of Alexander, and reaching down to the over- 
throw of the Greek national independence by the 
Romans, was, in the natural order of things, an era 
of learning, of criticism, and of imitation. The writers 
of this period, therefore, abound with references of all 
kinds to their predecessors and contemporaries. A 
second age of literature holds up a mirror of the first. 
Erudition, amplitude, comprehension, method, labour, 
take the place of spontaneous effort, and of intuitive 
taste. Commentators, compilers, and collectors abound ; 
and the writers of such an age seem to perform the 
functions of caryatides in the temple of learning ; as if 
their only business was to sustain the pediment which 
chiefly attracts the admiration of spectators. Among 
writers of this class, therefore, we are to look for a 
copious harvest of quotations ; and in their pages we 
shall rarely fail to meet with evidence bearing upon any 
question of the genuineness of an ancient writer. 

The Eomans borrowed everything but energy of 
character and practical good sense, from the Greeks. 



QUOTATIONS AND EEFEEENCES. 31 

Their literature, from the first, was of a derived charac- 
ter ; their writers added learning to what might be their 
native genius ; and their works reflect the literature of 
their masters. Sufficiently ample allusions, therefore, to 
the most celebrated of the Greek authors, as well as to 
those of their countrymen, are found scattered through- 
out the Latin classics. 

Both the Greek and Latin writers of later ages were 
well acquainted with the literature of brighter times ; 
and they have left in their works ample means for 
bringing down the chain of references to the time of the 
decline of learning in Europe — to that time up to which 
we have already traced the history of existing manu- 
scripts ; so that the two lines of evidence unite about 
midway between the fifth and the fifteenth centuries. 

The nature, extent, and validity of the evidence that 
may be derived from the mutual references of authors, 
will be best exhibited by a classification of its several 
kinds under the following heads : — 

1. Literal quotations, whether the author cited is 
named or not. Such quotations serve the double pur- 
pose of proving the existence of the work quoted in the 
time of the writer who makes the reference, and of 
identifying, and sometimes even of correcting, the extant 
text. If, for example, in subsequent writers, we find 
only a dozen or twenty sentences, taken from different 
parts of an earlier work, the verbal coincidence is 
sufficient to prove that the work, such as we now find 
it, is the same as that quoted. When such quotations 
are numerous and exact, they afford the best means, 



32 DATE INFERRED FROM 

either of restoring the genuine reading of authors, or of 
judging of the comparative puritj of different manu- 
scripts. For frequently these quotations seem to have 
suffered less in the course of transcription than either 
the other parts of the work in which they are found, 
or than that from which the}^ are taken.. The reason 
of this difference may readily be imagined : — either the 
author himself quoted from a copy purer than any that 
are now extant; or the transcriber, meeting with a 
passage which he remembered to belong to a well- 
knovv^n work, consulted the original, of which he had a 
good copy, and the very circumstance of doing so 
would naturally induce somewhat more of care than in 
ordinary transcription, 

2. Incidental allusions are often met with, either to 
the words or to the sense of an author, sufficiently 
obvious to prove that the one writer was known to the 
other ; and yet they are too incidental and remote to be 
regarded as an interpolation. In questions of apparent 
difficulty, such accidental references may be con- 
clusive in proof of the existence of a work at a 
certain time. Among the ancient historians, there 
are instances in which two writers, who do not mention 
each other, narrate the same facts with so many coinci- 
dences of method, or of details, embellishments, or 
reflections, as to make it certain either that both 
narratives were derived from the same source ; or that 
the one was copied from the other. And if the one 
narrative has altogether the air of originality, and is 
in accordance with the writer's style and spirit, the 



QUOTATIONS AND REFERENCES. 33' 

otlier writer must be held to be tlie quoting party, 
and therefore he establishes the prior existence of the 
work from which he has borrowed. 

3. Nearly every one of the principal authors of 
antiquity has been explicitly mentioned, or criticised, or 
described, by later writers. Lists of their works have 
been given, with summaries of their contents ; or they 
have been made the subjects of connected commentaries, 
by means of which the mass of the original work may 
be identified, and collated, with existing copies. Books 
of this secondary class are usually fraught with re- 
ferences to the entire circle of literature that was extant 
in the writer's time. There are also extant several 
works containing the lives of ancient authors, with 
accurate lists of their works. These biographical pieces, 
while they have on one hand afforded a security against 
the production of spurious works, on the other hand 
have given occasion to such attempts; for if some 
treatise, known to have been written by a celebrated 
author, was believed to have perished, an opportunity 
was presented for composing one which should cor- 
respond with the description given of it. But such 
spurious works must always be deficient in positive 
evidence, nor will they fail to betray the imposition by 
some glaring inconsistencies in style, or in matter. 
The lives of statesmen and warriors often contain such 
.allusions to the writers of the same age, as suffice to 
prove the time when they flourished. All the informa- 
tion we possess on this head is, in many instances, 
derived from allusions of this sort. 

& 



34 DATE INFERRED FROM 

4. A copious fund of quotations is contained in some 
ancient treatises on particular subjects, in which all the 
authors who have handled the same topic are mentioned 
in the order of time. 

5. Controversies, whether literary, political, or re- 
ligious, have usually occasioned extensive quotations to 
be made from works of all classes ; and, on the spur 
of an acrimonious disputation, many obscure facts have 
been adduced, which, by some circuitous connexion with 
other facts, have served to determine questions of 
literary history. 

6. Among all the means for ascertaining the antiquity 
and genuineness of ancient books, none are more satis- 
factory or more complete than those afforded by the 
existence of early translations. Indeed, if such trans- 
lations can be proved to have been made near to the 
time at which the author of the original work is believed 
to have lived, and if they correspond, in the main, with 
the existing text — and if they have descended to 
modern times through channels altogether independent 
of those which have conveyed the original work — and 
if, moreover, ancient translations of the same work, in 
■seveyxd languages, are in existence, no kind of proof can 
be more perfect, or more trustworthy. In such cases 
every other evidence might safely be dispensed with. 
Ancient translations serve also the important purpose 
of furnishing a criterion by which to judge of the com- • 
parative merits of manuscripts, and by which also to 
determine questions of suspected interpolation. 

Although the genuineness of by far the greater part 



QUOTATIONS AND REFEEENCES. 35 

of ancient literature is established by a redundancy of 
testimonies, such as those here described, there will of 
course be some few instances of works which, though 
probably genuine, are so destitute of external proof that 
they must remain under doubt ; and there are also some 
few which, though probably spurious, possess just so 
much plausible proof of genuineness as serves to main- 
tain a place for them on the ground of controversy. 
The two together, therefore, will yield some number of 
disputable cases. The controversies that have actually 
been carried on relative to such doubtful works have 
served to show the exceedingly small chance which any 
actually spurious work can have of escaping suspicion 
and detection. And thus these discussions furnish, 
implicitly, the strongest grounds for relying upon the 
genuineness of those works against which even a cap- 
tious and whimsical scepticism can maintain no plausible 
objection. 



D 2 



CHAPTER lY. 

THE ANTIQUITY AND GENUINENESS OF ANCIENT BOOKS 
MAY BE INFERRED FROM THE HISTORY OF THE LAN- 
GUAGES IN WHICH THEY ARE EXTANT. 

A LANGUAGE is at oiice tlie most complete, and it is tlie 
least fallible of all historical records. A poem or a liistory 
may have been forged ; but a language is an unquestion- 
able reality. The bare circumstance of its existence, 
though it may long have ceased to be colloquially extant, 
proves, in substance, what it is which history has to com- 
municate. If we did but possess a complete vocabulary of 
an ancient language, and if we were to digest the mass 
in accordance with an exact principle of synthesis, we 
should frame a model of the people that once used it — 
a model more perfect than any other monuments can fur- 
nish : and on this ground we need fear no Msificatioiis, 
no concealments, no flatteries, no exaggerations. The 
precise extent of knowledge and of civilisation to which 
a people attained — nothing more and nothing less, is 
marked out in the mass of words of which they were 
accustomed to make use. 

A language, if the comparison may be admitted, might 



HISTORY OF LANGUAGES. 37 

be called a cast of the people who spoke it — a cast, taken 
from the very life ; and it is one which represents the 
world of mind, as well as the world of matter. The 
common objects of nature — the peculiarities of climate 
— the works of art — the details of domestic life — poli- 
tical institutions — religious opinions and observances — 
philosophy, poetry, and art — every form and hue of the 
external world, and every modification of thought, 
find their representatives in the language of the 
people. 

In any case, therefore, if we have a complete know- 
ledge of a language — that is to say, of the words of 
which it consists — we possess a mass of facts by aid of 
which to judge of the claims to authenticity of every 
work in which that language is embodied. And if, in 
addition to a knowledge of its vocabulary, the laws of its 
construction also, and the nicest proprieties of its syntax 
and style are known; and if, moreover, the changes 
that have taken place from age to age in the sense 
of words, and in modes of expression, are understood, 
we then possess ample and exact data with which to 
compare any book that pretends to antiquity. A writer 
who employs his native language must be expected to 
conform himself to its usages ; and we should find him 
adhering, more or less strictly, to the peculiarities of 
the age in which he writes : his vocabulary, moreover, 
will include that compass of words which his subject 
demands, and which the language affords. 

It is true that such a degree of skill in a dead lan- 
guage may be acquired as may enable a writer to use 



SS INFEEENCE FEOM THE 

it witli so exact a propriety as shall deceive, or at least 
perplex, even the most accomplished scholars. But the 
difficulty of avoiding every phrase of later origin, and all 
modern senses of those words which are continually 
passing from a literal to a metaphorical meaning, is so 
gresitj as to leave the chances of escaping detection ex- 
tremely small. Yet, as such a chance still remains 
within the range of possibility, this line of evidence 
cannot be reckoned absolutely conclusive, but must only 
be employed as subsidiary to those other evidences that 
bear upon questions of authenticity. 

The minute changes which are continually taking 
place in most languages, and the history of which, when 
known, serves often to ascertain the date of ancient 
books, are of two kinds; namely, those which result 
necessarily from actual changes in the objects represented 
by words, and those which are mere changes in the use 
and proprieties of language itself. 

Language being a mirror, reflecting all the communi- 
cable notions of the people who use it, every mutation in 
the condition of the people must bring with it, either 
new terms, or new combinations of words ; and as the 
particular circumstances which introduce such additions 
or alterations are often known, their occurrence in an 
author may serve to fix the date of the book, almost 
with certainty. 

Moreover, there is a progression in language itself, 
independent of any alterations in the objects represented 
by words. Whenever a vocabulary affords a choice 
of appellatives, even for immutable objects or notions, 



HISTOEY OF LANGUAGES. 39 

the caprices of conversation or of literature — affectation 
perhaps, or excessive refinement, will, from time to time, 
occasion a new selection to be made. In all those 
terms, especially, which either bring with them ideas 
too familiar to accord with the proprieties of an elevated 
style, or which are in any degree offensive to delicacy, 
there will take place a continual, and, sometimes, even 
a rapid, substitution of new for old phrases— not because 
the new are in themselves more dignified, or more pure 
than the old; but because, when first introduced, they 
are untainted by gross associations or vulgar use. 

Every language, therefore, copious specimens of which 
are extant, and of which the progress is known, contains 
a latent history of the people through whose lips it has 
passed, and furnishes to the scholar a series of recondite 
dates, by means of which literary remains may almost 
with certainty be assigned to their proper age. This 
sort of evidence bears the same relation to the history of 
hoohs, which that derived from the successive changes 
known to have taken place in the mode of writing bears 
to the history of manuscripts. It is of a subsidiary kind, 
and from its very indirectness it often deserves peculiar 
attention. 

We have now seen on what grounds it is, generally, 
that with reasonable confidence the extant works of 
ancient authors may be accepted as being such in truth. 
In presenting this statement of the case, nothing more 
has been attempted than to offer an outline or brief 
summary of the argument before us. Certain parts 
of this argument, as the reader will at once perceive. 



40 INFERENCE FROM THE HISTORY OF LANGUAGES. 

would admit of mnch amplification ; and in any instance 
in which the genuineness of a particular manuscript, 
or the authenticity of an ancient work were alleged to 
Ibe questionable, every part of the evidence would require 
to be brought forward in all its details, and to be 
narrowly scrutinized. 



CHAPTER V. 

ANCIENT METHODS OF WRITING, AND THE MATERIALS 
OF BOOKS. 

As our present inquiry relates to Boohs, it will not 
be expected to include anything concerning ancient 
methods of engraving inscriptions upon marbles, metals, 
or precious stones. Yet it should be remembered that 
a knowledge of inscriptions is often highly important, 
as furnishing subsidiary and independent means of 
determining the age of manuscripts, as indicated by the 
character of the writing. For as there are extant almost 
innumerable specimens of writing upon the more durable 
materials, and as these specimens belong to every age 
from the very earliest times, and as such inscriptions 
usually contain, either an explicit date, or some allusion 
to public persons or events, they serve to determine, 
beyond doubt, the successive changes that have taken 
place in the form of letters, and in the modes of 
writing. 

MATERIALS OF ANCIENT BOOKS. 

No material for books has, perhaps, a higher claim 
to antiquity than the skin of the calf or goat, tanned 
soft, and which usually was dyed red or yellow: the 



42 ANCIENT METHODS OF WEITING, 

skins, when thus prepared, were most often connected in 
lengths, sometimes of a hundred feet, sufficient to con- 
tain an entire work ; or one hooh of a history or treatise, 
which then formed a roll, or volume. These soft skins 
seem to have been more in use among the Jews and 
other Asiatics than among the people of Europe. The 
copies of the Hebrew Scriptures, found in the synagogues 
of the Jews, are often of this kind : the most ancient 
manuscripts extant are some copies of the Pentateuch, 
on rolls of crimson leather. 

Parchment — Pergamena, so called long after the time 
of its first use, from Pergamus, a city of Mysia, where 
the manufacture was improved and carried on to a great 
extent, is mentioned by Herodotus and Ctesias, as a 
material which had been from time immemorial used 
for books. It has proved itself to be, of all others, 
except that above mentioned, the most durable. The 
greater part of all those manuscripts, now in our hands, 
that are of higher antiquity than the sixth century, 
are on parchment; as well as, generally, all carefully 
written, and curiously decorated manuscripts, of later 
times. The palimpsests, mentioned in a preceding 
chapter, are usually parchments. 

The practice, which is still followed in the East, of 
writing upon the leaves of trees, is of great antiquity. 
The leaves of the mallow, or of the palm, were those the 
most used for this purpose ; sometimes they were wrought 
together so as to form larger surfaces ; but it is probable 
that so fragile and inconvenient a material was employed 
rather for ordinary purposes of business, letter-writing. 



AND THE MATERIALS OF BOOKS. 43- 

and tlie instruction of children, than for books, intended 
for preservation. 

The inner bark of the linden or teil tree, and perhaps 
of some others, called by the Romans Liber, by the 
Greeks Bihlos, was so generally used as a material for 
writing, as to have given its name to a hook, in both 
languages. Tables of solid wood called codices — whence 
the term codex, for a manuscript, on any material, has 
passed into common use — were also employed ; but this 
was chiefly for legal documents, on which account a 
system of laws came to be called — a Code. Leaves or 
tablets of lead, or of ivory, are frequently mentioned by 
ancient authors as in common use for writing. But no 
material or preparation seems to have been so frequently 
employed, on ordinary occasions, as tablets covered with 
a thin coat of coloured wax, which might be readily 
removed by an iron needle, called a style ; and from 
which the writing was as easily effaced, by applying the 
blunt end of the same instrument. 

But during many ages the article most in use, and of 
which the consumption was so great as to form a prin- 
cipal branch of the commerce of the Mediterranean, was 
that which was manufactured from the papyrus of Egypt. 
Many manuscripts written upon this kind of paper in 
the sixth, and some even so early as the fourth century, 
are still extant. It formed the material of by far the 
larger proportion of all books from very early times till 
about the seventh or eighth century, when it gradually 
gave place to a still more convenient manufacture — our 
modern paper. 



44 

The papyrus, or reed of Egypt, grew in vast quantities 
in the stagnant pools that were formed bj the annual 
inundations of the Nile. The plant consists of a single 
stem, rising sometimes to the height of ten cubits : this 
stem, graduallj tapering from the root, supports a 
spreading tuft at its summit. The substance of the 
stem is fibrous, and the pith contains a sweet juice. 
Every part of this plant was put to some use by the 
Egyptians — so ingenious and so industrious as they 
were. The harder and lower part they formed into 
cups and other utensils ; the upper part into staves, or 
the ribs of boats : the sweet pith w^as a common article 
of food ; while the fibrous part of the stem was manu- 
factured into cloth, sails for ships, ropes, strings, shoes, 
baskets, wicks for lamps, and, especially, into paper. 
For this purpose the fibrous coats of . the plant were 
peeled off, throughout the whole length of the stem. 
One layer of fibres was then laid across another upon a 
block, and being moistened, the glutinous juice of the 
plant formed a cement, sufiiciently strong to give 
coherence to the fibres ; when greater solidity was 
required, a size made from bread or glue was employed. 
The two films being thus connected, were pressed, dried 
in the sun, beaten with a broad mallet, and then 
polished with a shell. This texture was cut into 
various sizes, according to the use for which it was 
intended, varying from thirteen, to four fingers' breadth, 
and of proportionate length. 

By progressive improvements, which were made 
especially when the manufacture came into the hands of 



AXD THE MATERIALS OF BOOKS. 45 

tlie Eoman artists, this Egyptian paper was at length 
Lrouglit to a high degree of perfection. In later ages it 
was made of considerable thickness — perfect whiteness, 
and an entire continuity and smoothness of surface. 
Nevertheless, it was, at the best, so friable, that when 
durability was required, the copyists inserted a page of 
parchment between every five or six pages of the 
papyrus. Thus the firmness of the one substance 
defended the brittleness of the other; and great num- 
bers of books, constituted in this manner, have resisted 
the accidents and decays of twelve centuries. 

Three hundred years before the Christian era, the 
commerce in the paper of Egypt had extended over 
most parts of the civilised world ; and long afterwards 
it continued to be a principal source of wealth to the 
Egyptians. But at length the invention of another 
material, and also that interruption of commerce which 
ensued in consequence of the conquest of Egypt by the 
Saracens, banished the Egyptian paper from common 
use. Comparatively few manuscripts on this material 
are found of later date than the eighth or ninth cen- 
tury ; although it continued to be occasionally used 
long afterwards. 

The charta bombycina, or cotton paper, which has 
often improperly been called silk paper, had unquestion- 
ably been manufactured in the East as early as the 
ninth century, and probably much earlier ; and in the 
tenth century it came into general use throughout 
Europe. Not long afterwards, this invention was made 
still more available for general purposes by the substi- 



46 ANCIENT METHODS OF WEITING, 

tution of old linen, or cotton rags, for tlie raw material; 
for by this means Loth the price of the article was 
reduced, and its quality greatly improved. The cotton 
paper manufactured in the ancient mode is still used in 
the East, and is a beautiful fabric ; it is also extensively 
used in the United States. 

From this account of the materials successively 
employed for books, it will be obvious, that a know- 
ledge of the changes which these several manufactures 
underwent from age to age, will often make it easy, 
and especially when employed in subservience to other 
evidence, to fix with certainty the date of manuscripts ; 
or at the least, to furnish infallible means for detecting 
fabricated documents. 

The preservation of books, framed as they are ot 
materials so destructible, through a period of twelve, or 
even fifteen hundred years, is a fact which might seem 
almost incredible; especially so as the decay of far 
more durable substances, within a much shorter period, 
is continually presented to our notice. Yet so it is, 
that while the massive walls of the monasteries of the 
middle ages are often seen prostrate, and their materials 
fast mingling with the soil, the manuscripts, penned 
within them, or perhaps at a time when these stones 
were yet in the quarry, are still fair and perfect, and 
glitter with their gold and silver, their cerulean and 
their cinnabar. 

It must be remembered, however, that the materials 
of books, although destructible, are so far from being in 
themselves perishable, that so long as they are defended 



AND THE MATEEIALS OF BOOKS. 47 

from positive injuries, they appear to suffer scarcely at 
all from any intrinsic principle of decay, or to be liable 
to any perceptible process of chemical decomposition. 
No one, says Mabillon, unless totally unacquainted 
witli wliat relates to antiquity, can call in question the 
great durability of parchments ; since there are extant 
innumerable books, written on that material, in the 
seventh and sixth centuries ; and some of a still more 
remote antiquity, by which all doubt on that subject 
might be removed. It may suffice here to mention the 
Virgil of the Vatican Library, which appears to be of 
more ancient date than the fourth century ; and another 
in the King's Library little less ancient : also the 
Prudentius, in the same library, of equal age ; to which 
you may add several, already mentioned, as the Psalter 
of S. Germanus, the Book of the Councils, and others, 
which are all of parchment. 

The paper of Egypt, being more frail and brittle, 
might be open to greater doubt ; and yet there are books 
of great antiquity, by which its durability may be esta- 
blished. 

Books have owed their conservation, not merely to 
the durability of the material of which they were formed; 
but to the peculiarity of their being, at once precious, 
and yet (in periods of general ignorance) not marketable 
articles; they were of inestimable value to a few^ while 
absolutely worthless in the opinion of the multitude. 
They were also often indebted for their preservation, in 
periods of disorder and violence, to the sacredness of the 
roofs under which they were lodged. 



48 ANCIENT METHODS OF WEITING, 



The instruments used for writing would, of course, be 
sucli as were adaj)ted to the material on which they -were 
to be employed. For writing upon the brazen, leaden, 
or waxed tablets, above mentioned, a needle, called a 
style, was used, the upper end of which, being smooth 
and flat, served to obliterate the marks on the tablet, as 
occasion might require. These styles were at first most 
often formed of iron or brass ; but afterwards of ivory, 
bone, or wood. Indeed a fatal use having been, on 
several occasions, made of these pointed weapons by 
angry partisans in the public courts, the use of iron 
styles was prohibited; Caesar, when attacked by the 
conspirators, is said to have used his iron style as a 
dagger, and with it to have pierced the arm of one of 
them : and the story of the Christian schoolmaster, 
Cassianus, is well known, who is said to have been 
killed by his scholars, armed with their styles : other 
similar instances are recorded. 

For the purpose of writing with fluid ink, a calamus, 
formed generally from a reed of the Nile, was used. 
Persons of distinction often wrote with a calamus of 
silver. The u.se of quills seems to have been of ancient 
date ; but long after the time when the fitness of the 
quill for the purpose of writing had become known, the 
calamus of reed continued to be preferred. The scalpel, 
or knife employed for trimming the pen, the compasses, 
for measuring the distances of the lines, and the scissars, 



AXD THE MATERIALS OP BOOKS. 49 

for cutting the paper, are always seen on tlie desk of 
the writers in the decorations attached to many ancient 
manuscripts. 

The ink most used by the ancients has been said, but 
on rather uncertain authority, to have consisted of the 
black liquor found in the cuttle fish. But it has been 
proved by chemical analysis that an opaque ink, very 
different from the mere dye or stain used at present, was 
commonly employed by the transcribers of books. This 
opaque ink seems, like the China ink, to have been 
formed from the finest soot of lamps, in which the purest 
combustibles were burnt. The coal of ivory, or of the 
finer woods, powdered, was also in use ; these or similar 
substances, mixed with gums, and diluted with acids, 
formed a pigment that was much more durable than our 
modern ink ; but it was also far less fluent, and there- 
fore less adapted to a rapid and continuous movement 
of the pen. 

The ink, says Montfaucon, which we see in the most 
ancient Greek manuscripts, has evidently lost much of 
its pristine blackness; yet neither has it become alto- 
gether yellow or faint, but is rather tawny or deep red, 
and often is not far from a vermilion. This appears in 
many manuscripts of the fourth and following centuries. 
Yet there are some written with an ink more skilfully 
composed, which have preserved their first blackness. It 
has happened also, when the surface of the parchment, 
instead of being polished, v^as spongy, that the ink has 
become yellow. In all the bombycine manuscripts, 
owing to the nature of the material, a separation of the 

E 



50 ANCIENT METHODS OF WEITING, 

parts of the ink lias taken place ; the grosser part stand- 
ing on the surface, while the finer has penetrated the 
substance of the paper. 

Inks of various colours, especially red, purple, and 
blue, and also gold and silver inks, were much used by 
the ancients : few manuscripts are destitute of some 
such ornamental diversities of colour ; and many are 
splendidly recommended to the eye by these means. 
There was a purple ink, which was appropriated to the 
use of the emperors, and was called the sacred encaustic ;. 
but a dye, not easily distinguished from that which 
appears upon some imperial charters, is very commonly 
found in ancient books. And it is said that they must 
have had a nice sight who could so distinguish between 
the two as to have detected a violation of the law on 
this subject. The subscription commonly seen at the 
end of Greek manuscripts, containing the name of the 
transcriber, with the year, month, day, indiction, and 
sometimes the hour when the copy was finished, are 
most often written in the imperial colour, especially in 
the times of the lower empire ; or if not in that ink, in 
one that cannot now be distinguished from it. 

The titles of chapters were frequently written alter- 
nately in red and cerulean : marginal notes, most often 
in the latter colour. Books of a later date often have 
all the capitals of a bright green. The Greeks, more 
frequently than the Eomans, used golden ink; and 
many Greek manuscripts are extant in which, not the 
titles and capitals only, but whole pages, are elegantly 
written in a pigment of the precious metals : but it was 



AND THE MATERIALS OF BOOKS. 51 

rather upon ecclesiastical tlian profane literature that this 
honour was bestowed. The works of the Fathers, chiefly, 
were so adorned, and sometimes the Gospels : there is 
extant a copy of the four Evangelists, written upon 
purple parchment, in letters of gold throughout. The 
practice of using gold and silver inks was so common, 
that the manufacture of them became a distinct business ; 
and those who were skilled in this sort of writing seldom 
followed any other employment than that of inserting 
the titles, capitals, or emphatic words, in copies that had 
been executed by inferior hands. Several curious recipes 
for the preparation of the precious pigments are given 
by the later Greek writers. 

Those who have been long accustomed to inspect and 
examine ancient manuscripts acquire a certain tact in 
judging of the age of a book from the condition of the 
ink, its colour and composition, which cannot be ex- 
plained to others, and for the exercise of which no rules 
can be laid down. But in cases where a fraud is 
suspected, this nice habit of the eye often detects at 
once the imposition. It is perhaps more practicable 
to give to a picture, than to a manuscript, the hue 
of antiquity by artificial means. 



e2 



CHAPTEE VL 

CHANGES INTRODUCED IN THE COURSE OF TIME IN THE 
FORMS OP LETTERS, AND IN THE GENERAL CHARACTER 
OF WRITING. 

An exact uniformity in the shapes of letters, and in the 
general appearance of writing, is hardly maintained for 
so long a period as fifty years in any language, espe- 
cially if it be widely diffused. Within that space of 
time, the fashion of our own typogTaphy has undergone 
several changes, so perceptible as to afford a tolerably 
certain criterion of the date of books. No person, for 
example, who is familiar with books, would find it 
difficult, merely from the character of the type, to dis- 
criminate the age of works published at the several 
periods of 1775, 1800, 1825, and 1855. On similar 
grounds a knowledge of the successive changes intro- 
duced by caprice, accident, or a regard to convenience, 
in the ancient modes of writing, affords an almost cer- 
tain means of determining the age of manuscripts. 

The knowledge requisite for the exercise of this dis- 
crimination is derived, in part, from incidental allusions 
to modes of writing which occur in some ancient authors ; 
but principally from an extensive comparison of manu- 
scripts themselves, and from a comparison of manuscripts 



STYLE OF WETTING. 53 

witli inscriptions upon marbles, brazen tablets, or coins. 
From these sources may be collected a sufficiently 
precise idea of the character or fashion of writing pre- 
vailing in each century, from the second, to the fifteenth, 
of the Christian era. 

The oldest Greek manuscripts that are extant differ 
little in the form of the letters, or the general appearance 
of the writing, from inscriptions belonging to the corre- 
sponding periods. They are written in capitals, called 
uncials, without division of words, and without marks of 
accentuation or punctuation. About the seventh cen- 
tury, the custom of affixing the accents and aspirates 
appears to have been introduced ; at the same time a 
greater degree of precision was observed in the formation 
of the letters, and also in the directness and the paral- 
lelism of the lines. To these improvements was added 
a change in the form of those letters which most impeded 
the rapid movement of the pen. 

In the eighth and ninth centuries a mode of writing, 
which had been long before practised by notaries and 
by the secretaries of public persons, was adopted by the 
transcribers of books. This was a kind of running- 
hand, those who invented, or who most used it, being- 
called tachygraphoi — swift writers. To adapt the 
Greek letters to the purpose of public business and 
common life, the square forms had been changed for 
curves, and uprights for slopes : and while a radical 
resemblance to the primitive character was preserved, 
facility and fresdom were obtained. 

The uncial character was not, however, altogether 



54 CHANGES IN THE 

abandoned by tlie copyists ; but modifications of it were 
introduced with a view to obtain greater facility: for 
the unconnected and upright squares formerly used, 
seemed still more operose in execution after the running- 
hand had been adopted. The copyists of the eighth 
century introduced the practice of commencing books or 
chapters with a letter of large size, which they usually 
distinguished by grotesque decorations, somewhat in the 
manner seen in the printed books of the sixteenth 
century. 

Those who gained their living by copying books 
found so great an advantage in the adoption of the 
swift, or tachygraphic character, that they presently 
sought to improve it by every device that might favour 
the uninterrupted movement of the pen ; not content 
with joining the letters of each word_, they combined 
them in forms that often bore little or no resemblance 
to the component characters. The books of the tenth 
and following centuries abound with these contractions, 
abbreviations, and symbols. Many entire words of 
common occurrence were indicated by single turns of 
the pen. A great part of these contractions were 
adopted by the first printers, and many of them con- 
tinued in use until a very recent date. 

The manuscripts of the twelfth and thirteenth cen- 
turies are distinguished by a degeneracy in the mode of 
writing, and by a growing abuse of the principle of 
celerity and facility. To these symptoms of the in- 
fluence of a mercantile motive, put into activity by an 
increasing demand for books, may be added the practice 



STYLE OP WRITING. 55 

of discliarging the writing of old parchments, which 
prevailed at the same period more extensively than 
heretofore. A vast number of books of this sort, 
written upon erased parchments, are to be met with, 
executed in the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth cen- 
turies. In most instances, the first writing is utterly 
obliterated; yet the marks of the erasure are still 
evident. Thus in a MS. above described, not a letter, 
not a point, of the ancient writing remains; but on 
many of the leaves may be discerned ruled lines, either 
transverse or perpendicular, which having been deeply 
impressed upon the parchment could not be effaced ; so 
that those old lines often crossed the new writing. 
Other pages of the same MS. present no such indica- 
tions ; the leaves having probably been taken from 
•different books. In another MS., executed in the year 
1186, though the ancient writing is generally obli- 
terated, yet in a few places, if closely inspected, the ends 
of the letters may be perceived. In a word, if all the 
books of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries are 
examined, there will appear to be almost as many 
written upon erased, as upon new parchments.* I am 
of opinion, that many authors extant in the time of 
Photius, and even in that of Porphyrogenitus, were 
utterly destroyed by the prevalence of this pernicious 
practice. This plague, as it may be termed, spread its 
devastation among ancient books first in the twelfth 
century, and continued its ravages during the thirteenth 
and fourteenth. The same thing is rarely to be observed 

" Montfaucon. 



56 CHANGES IN THE 

in bombjcine manuscripts : I have met with one book 
only of this material in which the lirst writing had 
been erased, and a second induced. The Greek writers 
of these times ordinarily erased a better work for the 
sake of substituting a worse; either one of their own 
inane productions, or those works of which there is 
no scarcity among MSS. The extremest ignorance 
must certainly have pervaded Greece in those times, 
when what related to ancient history, or to polite 
learning, was not valued a straw by the writers, who 
rather than purchase new parchment, destroyed, without 
scruple, ancient books. 

A progression similar to that which took place in 
Greek writing, distinguishes manuscripts in the Latin 
language, and affords a like criterion of antiquity. 
Several manuscripts believed, on good evidence, to 
belong to the third and fom-th centuries, are extant, 
which present a style of writing nearly allied to that 
which appears in the inscriptions of the same period. 
But the uncial character gave place to the small letter 
at an earlier date among the Koman, than among the 
Greek copyists ; yet they seem to have availed them- 
selves of the change in a much less degree for the 
purposes of celerity. Indeed, there is little more of 
continuity, or of abbreviation in the small, than in the 
large character. Towards the tenth century the Latin 
scribes adopted a square and heavy character, similar to 
that which is seen in legal documents. This wide and 
full-faced letter was so much exaggerated by the writers 
of the fourteenth century, as almost to blacken the page 



STYLE OF WRITING. 57 

witli its massiveness. Still, a liandsome regularity and 
a fair degree of legibility were maintained. There are, 
indeed, some manuscripts of tliis period extant wliicli, 
for mathematical exactness and beauty, might almost 
challenge comparison with printed books. 

Nothing less, it is obvious, than a long-continued and 
extensive examination of ancient manuscripts, can confer 
upon any one such a degree of skill in discriminations of 
this kind, as might warrant his giving an opinion in a 
case of difficulty. Yet the mere inspection of a small 
number of these relics of antiquity may convince any 
one of the reality and distinctness of those progressive 
changes in the modes of writing upon which such discrimi- 
nations are founded. The architecture of different periods 
is not more characteristic of the age to which it belongs, 
than is the style of writing in manuscripts ; nor is there 
less certainty in determining questions of antiquity in 
the one case, than in the other. Particular instances 
may perplex or deceive the best-informed and the most 
acute observers ; but the greater number of cases admit 
of no question. 



FOEM OF ANCIENT BOOKS, AND THEIR ILLUMINATIONS. 

The mode of compacting the sheets of their books 
remained the same among the Greeks during a long- 
course of time : little, therefore, pertinent to our argu- 
ment, is to be gathered on this head. The sheets were 
folded three or four together, and separately stitched : 



58 AXCIENT BOOKS: 

these parcels were then connected nearly in tlie same 
mode as is at present practised. Books were covered 
with linen, silk, or leather. 

Sometimes the page was undivided; sometimes it 
contained two, and in a few instances of very ancient 
manuscripts, three columns. A peculiarity which at- 
tracts the eye in many Greek manuscripts, consists in 
the occurrence of capitals on the margin, some way in 
advance of the line to which they belong; and this 
capital sometimes happens to be the middle letter of a 
word. For when a sentence finishes in the middle of 
a line, the initial of the next is not distinguished, that 
honour being conferred upon the incipient letter of the 
next line ; as thus — 

Thegreeksentering- 
theregionofthema 
cronesformed an al 
liancewiththem.as 
t hepledgeoftheir 
faiththebarbarians 
gaveaspear. 

The Greeks, especially in the earliest times, divided 
their compositions into verses ; or into such short 
portions of sentences as we mark by a comma, each 
verse occupying a line ; and the number of these verses 
is often set down at the beginning or end of a book. 
The numbers of the verses were sometimes placed in 
the margin. 



THEIR ILLUMINATIONS. 59 

Mucli intricacy and difficulty attends tlie subject of 
ancient punctuation ; nor could any satisfactory account 
of the rules and exceptions that have been gathered 
from existing manuscripts be given, which should sub- 
serve the intention of this work. Generally speaking, 
and yet with frequent exceptions, the most ancient books 
have no separation of words, or punctuation, of any kind; 
others have a separation of words, but no punctuation ; 
in some, every word is separated from the following one 
by a point. In manuscripts of later date a regular 
punctuation is found, as well as accentuation. These 
circumstances enter into the estimate when the antiquity 
of a book is under inquiry ; but the rules to be observed 
in considering them cannot be otherwise than recondite 
and intricate. 

Few ancient books are altogether destitute of decora- 
tions ; and many are splendidly adorned with pictorial 
ornaments. These consist either of flowery initials, 
grotesque cyphers, portraits, or even historical compo- 
sitions. Sometimes diagrams, explanatory of the sub- 
jects mentioned by the author, are placed on the margin. 
Books written for the use of royal persons, or of digni- 
fied ecclesiastics, usually contain the effigies of the pro- 
prietor, often attended by his family, and by some 
allegorical or celestial minister ; while the humble 
scribe, in monkish attire, kneels and presents the book 
to his patron. 

These illuminations, as they are called, almost always 
exhibit some costume of the times, or some peculiarity 
which serves to mark the age of the manuscript. Indeed 



60 



ANCIENT BOOKS: THEIE ILLUMINATIONS. 



a fund of antiquarian information, relative to the middle 
ages, has been collected from this source. Manj of 
these pictured books exhibit a high degree of execu- 
tive talent in the artist, although labouring under the 
restraints of a barbarous taste. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE COPYISTS; AND THE PRINCIPAL CENTRES OF THE 
COPYING BUSINESS. 

It is a matter of some importance to know by what class 
of persons, cliiefly, tlie business of copying books was 
practised ; and it gives no little support to our confidence 
in the genuineness of existing manuscripts, to find that 
individuals of all ranks, influenced by very difierent 
motives, were accustomed to devote themselves to this 
employment. From the earliest times in which litera- 
ture flourished, there were, in all the principal cities of 
Greece and its colonies, great numbers of professional 
scribes ; that is to say, persons who gained their sub- 
sistence by copying books. Labourers of this class, it 
may well be supposed, aimed, in general, at nothing but 
to gain custom by the fairness and the fidelity of their 
copies. But it appears to have been not uncommon for 
persons of rank and leisure to occupy themselves in this 
employment. Thus it is that in the list of copyists we 
find the names of the nobles of the Constantinopolitan. 
empire. Some created their libraries for themselves by 
transcribing every book that came in their way. To 
persons of a sedate temper, or who by indisposition 
were confined to their homes, this occupation may be 



62 THE COPYISTS; AND THE PEINCIPAL 

imagined to have been higlily agreeable. Nor was it 
a "wasted labour to those wlio had leisure at command ; 
since the high price of books made the collection of a 
library, by purchase, scarcely practicable, except to the 
most opulent. 

The influence of Christianity very greatly extended 
the practice of private copying; for motives of piety 
operated to stimulate the industry of very many in the 
good work of multiplying the sacred books, and the 
works of Christian writers. The highest dignitaries of 
the Church, and princes even, thought themselves well 
employed in transcribing the Gospels and Epistles, the 
Psalter, or the homilies or meditations of the Fathers ; 
J nor were the classic authors, as we shall see, entirely 
neglected by these gratuitous copyists. 

But from the third or fourth century downwards, the 
religious houses were the chief sources of books^ and the 
monks were almost the only copyists. The employment 
was better suited than any other that can be imagined, to 
the rules, and usages, and to the modes of feeling pecu- 
liar to the monastic life. The mental and bodily inert- 
ness which the spirit and rules of the conventual orders 
tended to produce, when conjoined, in individuals, with 
some measure of native industry, would find precisely a 
field for that lethargic assiduity which it needed, in the 
business of copying books. In many monasteries this 
employment formed the chief occupation of the inmates ; 
and by few was it altogether neglected. 

Various appellations occur in the Greek authors, by 
which the several orders of wTiters were designated. 



CENTEES OF THE COPYlNa BUSINESS. 6S 

Among the scribes or notaries attached to the service 
of public persons, there were always some who were 
eminent for the rapidity with which they wrote, and 
who therefore bore the title of tachygraphoi, or " swift 
writers." But those who followed the business of copy- 
ing books, in which legibility was the chief excellence, 
generally called themselves halUgraphoi, or " fair 
writers." Yet these appellations are often used inter- 
changeably. 

The copyists usually subscribed their names at the 
end of every book, with the year in which it was 
executed : to which they often added the name of the 
reigning emperor ; sometimes, though rarely, the name 
of the patriarch of Constantinople, for the time being, 
is added to the subscription of the copyist. Manuscripts 
written in Sicily, bear the name of its kings; those 
e:jtecuted in the East, mention the Arabian or Turkish 
princes. The Greeks of the early ages commonly dated 
from the creation of the world, which they placed 5508 
years before Christ. Sometimes they reckoned time 
from the death of Alexander the Great ; sometimes from 
the accession of Philip Aridseus; sometimes from the 
accession of Diocletian ; and, occasionally, they give some 
notice of the signal events of their times. From these inci- 
dental references much important historical information 
has often been collected. These signatures are usually 
written by the hand of the transcriber of the book. 

Besides the signature of the copyist, the margins of 
many manuscripts contain notes — often very trivial or 
absurd, from the hands of successive proprietors of the 



64 THE COPYISTS; AND THE PEINCIPAL 

book ; eacli accompanied witli some date or reference to 
persons or events, serving to fix the time of the anno- 
tator, and, by inference, proving the antiquity of the 
manuscript. In a few instances the transcribers copied 
the subscription of the transcribers of the book from 
which they wrote ; and if that former subscription bears 
a date, we have a double indication of antiquity. 

The fidelity of the copyists, and the genuineness and 
integrity of ancient manuscripts, have been warmly and 
learnedly defended by the laborious Father Mabillon, on 
every occasion throughout his great work, De Re Dijplo- 
matica.'^ The leading motive which impelled the in- 
defatigable author to the prosecution of the researches 
of which this work gives the result, seems to have been 
the desire to establish the genuineness and integrity of 
ecclesiastical, and especially of monastic charters. In the 
course of his inquiries, he brings forward a vast variety 
and amount of information relating to the modes of 
writing practised in the monasteries, and in the courts of 
the French kings, during the middle ages. These facts 
are of course most available in arguments that relate to 
the genuineness and antiquity of existing manuscripts 
in the Latin language ; but there is so much of the sub- 
stance of the argument touching the genuineness of all 
ancient writings in the following passages, that they 

* De Re Diplomatica, Libri vi. in qiiibus quidquid ad veterum 
instrumentorum antiquitatem, materiam, scripturam et stilum ; quid- 
quid ad sigilla, monogrammata, subscriptiones ac notas chronologieas ; 
quidquid inde ad antiquariam, historicam, forensemque disciplinam 
pertinet, explicatur et illustratur. Op. et Stud. JoH. Mabillon. — Fol. 
Paris, 1709. 



CENTRES OF THE COPYING BUSINESS. 65 

may well be placed before the reader. The work itself 
is little likely to come under the eye of those for whom 
this volume is intended. 

This learned writer says : — " Before I conclude this 
supplement, I think it may be proper to say something 
concerning the integrity and authority of ancient books, 
which some persons dispute. For assuredly, if the 
genuineness of charters and public deeds is doubted, the 
authority of ancient manuscripts in general is also called 
in question ; and, if these doubts can be substantiated, it 
will appear that those who employ themselves in col- 
lating the printed editions of the Fathers, or other sacred 
books, with ancient manuscripts, spend their labour in 
vain. And hence, too, we must believe, contrary to the 
opinion of all learned persons, who think the world 
greatly indebted to the labours of the monks in transcrib- 
ing books, that they toiled to no good purpose. Such 
persons, to give colour to their opinion, affirm that the 
existing ancient manuscripts were executed by ignorant 
men, whose blunders are easily perceived by the learned; 
and on this prejudice they have founded the decision, 
that manuscripts having been written, for the most part, 
by unskilful hands, and derived many from one, are of 
little avail in understanding or restoring an author. 

" But if this principle were admitted, our confidence 
in the printed editions, as well as in the ancient manu- 
scripts, must fall to the ground. Neither the acts of 
councils, the works of the Fathers, nor the Holy Scrip- 
tures, would retain any authority. For whence, I ask, 
proceeded the printed editions, both of profane and 



QQ THE COPYISTS ; AND THE PRINCIPAL 

sacred writers ? were tliej not derived from ancient 
manuscripts ? If, therefore, these are of no authority, 
those can have none; and thus, hj this paradoxical 
opinion, the foundations, both of literature and of 
religion, are torn up. And, on this principle, there 
would be no force in the argument used by St. Augus- 
tine against the Manichseans, who calumniously affirmed 
every place of Holy Scripture, by wdiich their errors 
might be confuted, to be falsified and corrupted. But 
Augustine, in reply to Faustus, reminds him that 
whoever had first attempted such a corruption of the 
Scriptures, would have immediately been confuted by 
a multitude of ancient manuscripts, which were in the 
hands of all Christians. 

" On this principle the labours of the Fathers, Jerome, 
Augustine, and others, in collating ancient books Vv^ith 
modern copies, would have been fruitless. In vain the 
appeals of councils to such authorities for the determi- 
nation of controversies ; in vain the costs and cares of 
princes and kings in collecting manuscripts from the 
remotest countries. And if the case be thus, the Vati- 
can, the Florentine, the Ambrosian, and the royal 
(French) libraries are nothing better than useless heaps 
of parchment. And it was to no purpose that the 
Roman pontifi's and the kings of France, as well as other 
prelates and princes, sent learned men to the farthest 
parts of the East to obtain ancient books in the Latin, 
Greek, Hebrew, and other languages. And then the 
ancient transcribers must lose their credit, and especially 
the monks, who devoted themselves entirely to the 



CENTRES OF THE COPYING BUSINESS. 67 

copying of books ; sucli were the disciples of St. Martin, 
among whom, according to Sulpicius, no art but that of 
writing was practised. For they thought they could 
not be better employed than while at once edifying 
themselves in the continual perusal of the Holy Scrip- 
tures, and spreading the precepts of the Lord far and 
wide by their pens. Of this opinion was the pious 
Guigo : ' As we cannot preach the word with our lips, 
says he, ' let us do it with our hands ; for as many books 
as we transcribe, so many heralds of the truth do we 
send forth.' And thus also Peter the venerable, writing 
to Gislebert, a recluse, exhorts him to diligence in this 
exercise : ' For so you may become a silent preacher of 
the Divine Word ; and though your tongue be mute, 
your hand will speak aloud in the ears of many people. 
And in future times, after your death, the fruit of your 
toils will remain, even as long as these books shall 
endure.' 

" If it is affirmed that the manuscripts we possess 
were, for the most part, written by unlearned persons ; 
are they therefore undeserving of regard? In the 
first place, I deny that they were generally written by 
the unlearned. Certainly the blessed martyr Pam- 
philus, who wrote out the greater part of the w^orks of 
Origen, was not unlearned ; nor was Jerome unlearned, 
nor Hilarius. Of Fulgentius, the celebrated bishop (of 
Ruspa), it is reported that he was famed for his skill in 
the writer's art. The same praise was earned by those 
holy men Lucianus, Philoromus, and Marcellus; also 
by the blessed Plato and Theophanus. The blessed 

f2 



68 THE COPYISTS; AND THE PRINCIPAL 

Marcella the younger, as says Jerome, wrote quickly and 
without fault. The venerable Bede, Eadbert, Eaban and 
others among our learned men, discharged the function 
of copyists, not of their own works only, but of those 
of others. 

"And even if the greater part of manuscripts were 
written by unlearned men, they are not therefore to be 
accounted unskilful copyists, provided they read and 
copied accurately. Experience proves every day that 
those compositors are not the most correct who under- 
stand Latin, but that such are commonly the most 
faulty; especially in attempting to correct that which 
they do not properly understand, and which those who 
know nothing of the language set up accurately. But 
let it be granted that the copyists were unlearned : we 
know that the printed editions are not derived from a 
single copy, but from a comparison of many : the most 
careless scribe does not always err, and where he does, 
his mistakes are amended by the collation of the copies 
of others. 

" In a word, there were in all well-ordered churches 
and monasteries, not only learned writers who tran- 
scribed books themselves, but learned correctors, who 
compared the copies made by others with the originals, 
and amended whatever was erroneous. A devoted 
scribe, says Trithemius, when he has carefully written 
a book, compares it anew with the original, and 
subjects it to a diligent revision. Many instances 
might be adduced in proof of this revision and cor- 
rection of manuscripts. One or two may suffice. In 



CENTRES OF THE COPYING BUSINESS. 69 

the library of tlie Vatican there is a manuscript written 
towards the close of the fifth, or in the beginning of 
the sixth century, containing the books of St. Hilary 
on the Trinity, which has been collated with an older 
copy by some studious person, as appears by a note 
at the end. Again, Paul Warnefrid, deacon and monk 
of Casina, having copied the epistles of Gregory the 
Great, sent the book to Adalhard, abbot of Corbeia, 
requesting him to revise the copy; but the abbot, 
fearing lest he might alter the genuine text of so 
learned a doctor, contented himself with placing a mark 
in the margin at every place where there appeared to 
him to be an error. 

"But it is affirmed that there are many faulty, and 
many falsified manuscripts. That there are not a few 
faulty books I grant ; but that there are many falsified 
manuscripts I stoutly deny. The difference between a 
faulty and a falsified book is essential : of the former 
sort are those which, from the mistakes or negligence 
of the writer, contain some blemishes : of the latter 
kind are those which have been wilfully corrupted. 
Many, indeed, may appear to be falsified which are 
not so really, nor are even faulty. Which I may thus 
explain.— It could not but happen that the copyists, 
in transcribing large works, should sometimes wander 
from the true reading— putting perhaps one word for 
another. When they observed their error, they might 
rectify it in two ways, either by erasing the word and 
inserting the genuine reading ; or by inserting the 
true word beneath the other, which they marked with 



70 The copyists; and the principal 

points. 'Now some persons, not nnderstanding this, 
or purposely putting upon it an unfavourable construc- 
tion, found upon the first case a charge of erasure, 
and in the second, place both words in the text of the 
author, though the pointed word ought to be omitted. 
Sometimes also it happened that words or initials 
written in vermilion, having grown pale, were renewed 
by a later hand, which alterations have occasioned an 
unfounded suspicion of falsification." 

The pens of the monastic scribes were chiefly 
occupied in transcribing religious books, the Holy 
Scriptures, the works of the Fathers, the lives of saints, 
books of meditations and prayers ; yet the classic 
authors were not neglected. '* The Monastery of Pom- 
posia has been much improved since the time of 
its founder Guido [about 1025], renowned for sanctity. 
Incited by the fame of his piety great numbers assumed 
the sacred habit in his church; marquesses, counts, 
and sons of noblemen have laid aside the pomps and 
pleasures of the world to follow there the duties of 
religion. Among these my master Jerome, afterwards 
abbot, was trained up from his earliest years to follow 
the monastic life, and made great proficiency in grammar 
and logic. He, for the edification of the brotherhood, 
set himself to collect the works of learned men; in 
order that amidst the variety, all might meet with the 
information they sought for. Bonus — good — both in 
name and life, who was first a hermit and afterwards 
a monk, was his librarian, a man esteemed by all as 
a perfect scholar, and so eager in the acquisition of 



CENTEES OF THE COPYING BUSINESS. 71 

-books that lie purcliased all he met with, however 
indistinctly they were written ; for the abbot determined 
to have them all transcribed for his library: and by 
his care almost all are now copied. He is ever in- 
quisitive for religious books of all kinds, so that the 
church of Pomposia is become the most renowned in 
Italy. Thus by the goodness of God our thirst of 
knowledge is increased by knowing. Indeed the abbot's 
desire of enriching his church with these treasures is 
unbounded. But envious persons may ask, Why does 
this reverend abbot place the heathen authors, the 
histories of tyrants, and such books, among theo- 
logical works ? To this we answer in the words of 
the apostle, that there are vessels of clay as well as of 
gold. By these means the tastes of all men are excited 
to study — the intention of the gentile writings is the 
same as that of the Scriptures, to give us a contempt 
for the world and secular greatness."* 

By these or similar apologies those of the monks, 
and there were some such in most houses, who possessed 
taste and learning, excused, to the more devout, the 
attention they bestowed upon the works of the profane 
authors. That the Greek and Latin classics were known 
and studied during what are called the dark ages, is 
capable of abundant proof, as we shall presently see. 
And those whose taste led them to be conversant with 
these writings took care, by the labours of their hands, 
to perpetuate the works they most admired. 

During the flourishing period of the Grecian republics, 

* Italian Diary. 



72 THE COPYISTS; AND THE PRINCIPAL 

that is, from the defeat of Xerxes to the time of Alex- 
ander the Great, many of the Greek colonies almost 
equalled, or even surpassed, the mother country in 
wealth, refinement, and intelligence. In the neigh- 
bouring islands of the ^gean Sea — in Asia Minor — in 
Italy and in Sicily, literature and philosophy were 
as eagerly cultivated as at Athens. Many of the most 
distinguished writers and philosophers were natives of 
the colonies ; and if Greece itself was the principal seat 
of learning, and the fountain head of books, whatever 
was there prodaced quickly found its way to distant 
settlements ; for to every city along the shores of the 
Mediterranean, and of the Euxine, there was a con- 
stant exportation of books : in many of these remote 
cities libraries were collected, and the business of 
copying was extensively carried on. 

After the time of Alexander, Grecian literature 
flourished nowhere so conspicuously as at Alexandria 
in Egypt, under the auspices of the Ptolemies. Here 
all the sects of philosophy had established themselves ; 
numerous schools were opened ; and, for the advance- 
ment of learning, a library was collected, which was 
supposed, at one time^ to have contained 700,000 
volumes^ in all languages. Connected with the library 
there were extensive offices, in which the business of 
transcribing books was carried on very largely, and 
with every possible advantage which royal munificence 
on the one hand, and learned assiduity on the other, 
could insure. Nor did the literary fame of Alexandria 
decline under the Koman emperors. Domitian, as 



CENTRES OF THE COPYING BUSINESS. 73 

Suetonins reports, sent scribes to Alexandria to copy 
books for the restoration of those libraries that had been 
destroyed by fire. And it seems to have been for some 
centuries afterwards a common practice for those who 
wished to form a library, to maintain copyists at Alex- 
andria. The conquest of Egypt by the Saracens, A.D. 
640, who burned the Alexandrian Library, banished 
learning for a time from that, as from other countries, 
which they occupied. 

Attains, and his successors, the kings of Pergamus, 
were great encouragers of learning ; and the copying of 
books was carried on to so great an extent in their 
capital as to occasion the establishment of a vast manu- 
facture of prepared skins (as mentioned above) which 
long continued to be a considerable article of commerce. 
The library of the kings of Pergamus is said to have 
contained 200,000 books. 

During upwards of a thousand years, from the reign 
of Constantine until the fall of Constantinople, in the 
fifteenth century, that city was the principal seat of 
learning, and the chief source of books. The Byzantine 
historians are frequent in their praises of the munificence 
of the emperors in purchasing books, and in providing 
for their reproduction. The manuscripts executed at 
Constantinople are often remarkable for the great beauty 
of the writing, and the splendour of the decorations. 
Besides the imperial libraries, the churches and monas- 
teries of the city were enriched with collections, more or 
less extensive, and in all of them the business of tran- 
scription was constantly and actively pursued. 



74 THE copyists; and the PEINCIPAL 

A large number of existing manuscripts are dated 
from the monasteries of the country immediately sur- 
rounding the metropolis of the eastern empire ; and 
many also, from those of Asia Minor, from the islands 
of the ^gean Sea, and especially from Cyprus. 

But no spot was more famed for the production of 
books than Mount Athos — the lofty promontory which 
stretches from the Macedonian coast far into the ^Egean 
Sea. The heights and the sides of this mountain were 
almost covered with religious houses, rendered by art 
and nature, and by the universal opinion of the sanctity 
of the monks of the " holy mountain," so secure 
that neither the meditations nor employments of the 
recluses were disturbed by the approach of violence. 
The chief occupation of the inmates of these esta- 
blishments is affirmed to have been the transcription 
of books, of which each monastery boasted a large 
collection. 

Many extant manuscripts prove that the copying of 
books was practised extensively during the middle ages 
in the monasteries of the Morea, in those of the islands 
of Euboea and of Crete. This latter island seems indeed 
to have been a place of refuge for men of learning 
during the latter periods of the eastern empire, who 
found in its monasteries, both shelter, and the means of 
subsistence. 

^ Fifty religious establishments in Calabria, and the 
.kingdom of Naples, are mentioned, from which pro- 
ceeded a large number of books afterwards collected in 
the libraries of Eome, Florence, Venice, and Milan. 



CENTEES OF THE COPYlXa BUSINESS. 75 

In the monasteries of western Europe also, and 
especially in those of the British Islands, this system 
of copying was carried on. Though there were con- 
siderable diversities in the rules and practices of the 
monks of different orders, the elements of the monastic 
life were in all orders and in every country the same ; ry 
and generally speaking, w^herever there were monas- A*^ 
teries, there was a manufacture of books. Yet, in some 
houses, these labours of the pen were much more 
worthily directed than in others. For while the monks 
of one monastery employed themselves in transcribing 
missals, legends, or romances, others enriched their 
libraries with splendid copies of the fathers of the 
church, and of the Holy Scriptures ; and some, though 
a smaller number, took care to reproduce such of the 
classic authors as they might be acquainted with. 

The monastic institution seemed as if it were framed 
for the special purpose of transmitting the remains of i J^' 
ancient literature — sacred and profane, through a period 
in which, except for so extraordinary a provision, they 
must- inevitably have perished. In every country a 
large class of the community — freed from the necessity 
of labour, and excluded from active employments, was 
constrained to seek the means of allaying the pains of 
listlessness ; and nothing could answer this purpose so 
well as the transcription of books. And to this employ- 
ment, congruous as it was with the physical habits that 
are induced by an inert mode of life, and compatible, 
too, with the observance of a round of unvarying forma- 
lities, was attached an opinion of meritoriousness, which 



/ 



76 THE COPYISTS, ETC. 

served to animate tlie diligence of tlie labourer. " This 
book, copied by M. N. for the benefit of his soul, was 

finished in the year , may the Lord think upon 

him." Such are the subscriptions of many of the 
manuscripts of the middle ages. 

Meanwhile along tlie cloister's painted side, 
The monks — each bending low upon his book 
With head on hand reclined — their studies plied ; 
Forbid to parley, or in front to look, 
Lengthways their regulated seats they took : 
The strutting prior gazed with pompous mien, 
And wakeful tongue, prepared with prompt rebuke, 
If monk asleep in sheltering hood was seen ; 
He wary often peeped beneath that russet screen. 

Hard by, against the window's adverse light, 
Where desks were wont in length of row to stand, 
The gowned artificers inclined to write ; 
The pen of silver glistened in the hand ; 
Some on their fingers rhyming Latin scanned ; 
Some textile gold from balls unwinding drew, 
And on strained velvet stately portraits planned ; 
Here arms, there faces shone in embryo view. 
At last to ghttering life the total figures grew. 

FOSBROOKE. 



CHAPTEE VIII. 

INDICATIONS OF THE SURVIVANCE OF ANCIENT LITE- 
EATUEE, THEOUGH A PEEIOD EXTENDING FEOM THE 
DECLINE OF LEAENING IN THE SEVENTH CENTUEY, 
TO ITS EESTOEATION IN THE FIFTEENTH. 

Geneeal epitliets usually cany with them a meaning 
that oversteps the hounds of truth : we hear of " the 
dark ages " — " the period of intellectual night " — " the 
season of winter in the history of man" — and we are 
apt to imagine that during the times thus designated 
the human mind had become utterly palsied, and that 
all learning was extinct. But in fact throughout that 
period, reason, though often misdirected, was not sleep- 
ing : philosophy was rather bewildered than inert ; and 
learning, although immured, was not lost. 

In no part of the period that extends from the reign 
of Justinian, when Greek and Eoman literature every- 
where lay open to the light of day, till the fall of the 
Constantinopolitan empire, and the revival of western 
learning in the fifteenth century, do we lose the traces 
even of the classic authors, much less of those that 
belong to sacred literature ; for in each of the intervening 
ages, and in every quarter of Europe, there were writers 



78 INDICATIONS OF THE 

whose works, being still extant, give evidence of tlieir 
acquaintance with most of the principal authors of 
more remote times. 

Under the vague impression that has been created hj 
certain loose modes of speaking, relative to the deep and 
universal ignorance said to have prevailed throughout 
Europe during a space of seven hundred years, the 
existence of a large number of manuscripts of the classic 
authors, undoubtedly executed during those very ages 
of ignorance, presents a great apparent difficulty : for, 
from what motive, it may be asked, or for whose use, 
were these works transcribed, so frequently as that they 
were found in all parts of Europe, on the revival of 
earning in the fifteenth century? The facts that are 
now to be mentioned, will furnish a sufficient solution 
of this question, by proving that, in the West and in 
the East, during those times of general intellectual 
lethargy, there were more than a few individuals who 
cultivated polite literature with ardour, and to whom 
the possession and preservation of books was a matter 
of the liveliest interest. The names about to be men- 
tioned — as the well-informed reader will recollect — bear 
but a small proportion to the whole number that might 
be adduced : it is sufficient for our purpose to refer to 
one or two writers in each century. 

But before naming individual men, whose extant 
writings give evidence of the continuity of literature, 
and therefore assure us of the safe transmission of 
ancient books to modern times, it will be serviceable to 
bring clearly into view what it is which is needed for 



SURVIVANCE OF ANCIENT LITERATUEE. 79 

constituting the Living Medium of this transmission. 
Now, for bringing this matter home to the convictions 
and the consciousness of the reader, let him take up his 
own family history, and pursue it, retrogressively, in- 
quiring how many individuals are needed — or let us 
rather say how few — to make up a chain of historical 
and literary conveyance, through any given track of 
time past; for instance, from this present time, 1858, 
into the mid-time of the Elizabethan era, as thus : — 

I will now assume the fact — whether it be true or 
not does not signify to the argument — that my proge- 
nitors in a direct line were educated persons — or if not 
so — that each father in the line secured for his son 
an ordinary grammar-school education — instruction just 
sufficient for making him cognisant of the most noted 
persons and authors of preceding times ; so that, in each 
case, if the father himself did not teach the son, the 
father's friend and townsm^an, the schoolmaster, did it, 
as for instance : — From my father's own lips I received 
the rudiments of general history, and of literary history, 
so that in my boyhood I came to be familiar with all 
the principal names of public men and authors, up from 
that time to times indefinitely remote. This process of 
paternal instruction carries me up to the last decade of 
the eighteenth century : say, to the time of the breaking 
out of the French Eevolution. But then, my father 
had received, either from his father, or from his father's 
proxy, the schoolmaster, a like kind and amount of 
general information, by means of which we are carried 
up, without a break, to the times of Samuel Johnson, 



80 INDICATIONS OF THE 

Oliver Goldsmith, Sir Josliua Keynolds; and in fact 
mj father distinctly remembers, when a boy, seeing, 
and being in company with, some of these illustrious 
men, the friends of my grandfather. Then he had re- 
ceived — we will suppose — a similar initiation in 
literary and political history, and if so, then we are 
furnished with stepping-stones up to the times of 
Bentiey, Pope, Swift, Addison, Watts, and although 
this last name would seem to stand beyond the limit of 
any immediate recollections, yet it is a fact that the 
'' Divine Songs " have come to me by means of a single 
intervening person — from one who, as a favoured little 
girl, learned them, standing at the amiable doctor's 
knee. Thus it is that we travel safely, and with a 
distinct cognisance of the way, through more than a 
century of literary conveyance. At this rate, and if we 
may take this last preceding period of time as our 
gauge of centuries past, then we shall require the aid of 
only eight or nine persons, in series, to bring us into 
correspondence with Shakespeare and Ben Jonson. 
Fewer than this — we might take six long-lived men to 
put us into this position of proximity with the worthies 
of the Elizabethan era. 

In making good our supposition, it is not necessary 
to assume the fact (which we can seldom certainly know) 
that there has been, in any one family, a continuous suc- 
cession of fathers and sons — the father living long enough 
to instruct the son. We should rather take the case of 
the intellectual filiation of college life : we imagine the 
learned professor, during the last ten years of his official 



SUEVIVANCE OF ANCIENT LITERATURE. 81 

life, imparting his mental substance to a hundred or 
two of scholars, some two or three of whom, at least, 
will live to do the like, from the same chair, in behalf of 
their successors. On this ground the individual teachers 
need not be more than twelve, upon whose oral testi- 
mony, in succession, we rely in passing from an age 
of generally diffused intelligence, to the times of the 
revival of learning, and of printed books. 

It will be remembered that — if indeed there were 
grounds of doubt concerning the safe transmission of 
ancient books to modern times, any such suspicions can 
attach only to the period that is usually designated 
as the " Park Ages," and these need not be reckoned 
as more than seven, reaching back from the times of 
Dante, Petrarch, Chaucer, Wickliffe, to the pontificate of 
Gregoi}^ the Great, in whose times, as appears from his 
writings, the learning of the preceding ages was still 
familiarly known to more than a few. 

The Sixth Century of the Christian era abounds with 
the names of writers in all departments of literature, 
many of whose works, having descended to modern 
times, present ample evidence of the scarcely diminished 
diffusion of general learning. Among many others, 
such were — Procopius, the historian of the reign of Justi- 
nian ; — and Agathias, who continued that history, and was 
a learned man; — BoethiuSj author of what is regarded 
as the last specimen of pure Latinity — a poem on " the 
Consolations of Philosophy;" — Hesychius, the lexico- 
grapher ; — Proclus, a platonic philosopher ; — Fulgentius, 
and Cassiodorus, ecclesiastical writers; — Priscianus, a 

G 



^2 INDICATIONS OF THE 

grammarian; — Gildas tlie wise, an Anglo-Saxon his- 
torian ; — Evagrius Scholasticus, an ecclesiastical his- 
torian ; — Simplicius, the commentator npon Aristotle and 
Epictetus ; — Marcellinus Ammianns, an historian and 
critic, whose works contain copious references to ancient 
literature; and Stephen, of Byzantium, a grammarian 
and geographer. We might take in hand the work of 
this last-named writer — TIEPI II O AEON, as furnishing, 
by itself, a sufficient mass of evidence in proof of the ex- 
tensive book-learning of those times which immediately 
overlook the gulf — the dark ages. This Stephen, the 
geographer, in the course of his account of the cities and 
towns of the ancient world, cites, or makes some refer- 
ence to, the works of more than three hundred authors, 
to which he had access at any moment, while compiling 
his own. 

The Seventh Century produced fewer writers than 
perhaps any other period that can be named within the 
compass of literary history. Yet there are more than 
enough to serve our present purpose : such are — Theophy- 
lact of Simocatta, who has left a history of the reign of 
the emperor Maurice, not very highly esteemed indeed, 
but abounding in allusions to the literature of the times. 

Isidore, bishop of Seville, a complete collection of 
whose works fills seven quarto volumes, is a writer 
very proper to be mentioned in relation to our present 
purpose. Confessedly the age of Mahomet was a 
dull time: few indeed are the writers whose mere 
names have come down to us ; — and yet, even in 
^uch a time, a voluminous writer, who treats of all 



SURVIVANCE OF ANCIENT LITERATURE. 83 

kinds of subjects — religion, Chnrch history, grammar, 
poetry, astronomy, physical science, and treats some of 
these systematically, might not only employ himself in 
labom'S of this kind, but also find amxong his contem- 
poraries, and the men of the next age, numerous readers, 
and admirers, and copyists too, who found their account 
in transcribing so vast a product of literary industry. 
The times of this bishop, therefore, dark as they might 
be, were nevertheless times of book-knowledge : through- 
out the dim period there was a class of the learned, 
numerous and intelligent enough, to keep watch upon 
the intellectual treasures of brighter times, to conserve 
the rich inheritance of mind, and to do their office in 
transmitting it down, unimpaired, to after ages. This 
fact is all which just now we need think of. 

What we have thus said of the seventh century — of its 
darkness and its light, might be affirmed with little dif- 
ference, as to the next. Our countryman, the "Venerable 
Bede," flourished in the seventh, but lived far on into the 
eighth century. The writings of Bede — and we should 
remember that he passed his life in the seclusion of a 
remote monastery — St. Peter and St. Paul, on the Tyne, 
in the diocese of Durham — affiord ample proof of a wide 
diffusion of books, in that age. Bede displays extensive, 
if not profound learning, the whole of which he had 
acquired from sources that were ordinarily within the 
jeach of monastic students. Bede " was a man of uni- 
versal learning, not less skilled in the Greek than in 
the Latin tongue : a poet, a rhetorician, an historian, an 
astronomer, an arithmetician, a master of chronology 

a2 



84 INDICxVTIONS OF THE 

and geograpLj, a pliilosoplier, and theologian. So much 
was he admired in his own times that it became a pro- 
verbial saying among the learned — " A man born in the 
farthest corner of the earth has compassed the earth with 
the line of his genius." " He was," says Bale. " versed 
in the profane authors beyond any man of that age. 
Physics and general learning he derived, not from 
turbid streams, but from the pure fountains; that is, 
from the chief Greek and Latin authors. Indeed, there 
is hardly anything of value in the compass of ancient 
literature^ that is not to be met with in Bede, although 
he never travelled beyond the limits of his native land." 

The conservative function was taken up by several 
of Bede's disciples ; among them we may name Alcuin, 
who did much, by his learning and his influence at the 
court of Charlemagne, to aid the endeavours of that 
enlightened prince for the restoration of literature. He 
was skilled in the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages ; 
gave lectures in all the sciences, and founded many 
public schools. His works, historical and theological, 
are in part extant, and they justify the reputation he 
enjoyed. In his letters he familiarly quotes the classic 
writers. 

Charlemagne, himself tolerably well acquainted with 
Latin and Greek authors, zealously laboured to restore 
learning in the Church, and out of it. He invited learned 
men to his court, employed them in making Latin trans- 
lations of the Greek classics and of the fathers, founded 
public schools, and introduced regulations tending to 
make some degree of education indispensable to all 



SURVIVANCE OF ANCIENT LITERATUEE. 85 

who held office in the Church. Of the professors invited 
by Charlemagne to his court, as many came from tlie 
British Isles as from Italy. We must not forget, says 
Muratori, the praise of Britain, Scotland, and Ireland, 
which, in the study of the liberal arts, surpassed all 
other nations of the West in those times ; nor omit to 
record the diligence of the monks of those countries, 
who roused and maintained the glory of letters which 
everywhere else was languishing or fallen. 

Kaban Maurus, a disciple of Alcuin, created arch- 
bishop of Mentz, in 847, had, before his elevation, taught 
theology, philosophy, poetry, and rhetoric at Paris, in 
the school established there by the Anglo-Saxon monks, 
'' A man well versed in the Holy Scriptures, and tho- 
roughly learned in profane literature, as his writings 
abundantly testify." He enriched the monastery of 
Fulda, on the Ehine, where he received his early educa- 
tion, with a large collection of books; and there he 
founded a school. Two hundred and seventy monks 
belonged to the establishment, who were trained by 
him in every branch of learning. Disciples flocked to 
him from all countries, and he reared for the Church a 
great number of ministers well furnished for its service. 
He died, 856. 

One of the first professors in the University of Oxford 
founded (or restored) by King Alfred, was John Scot 
he afterwards went into France, where he was honour- 
ably entertained at the court of Charles the Bald, at 
whose request he translated some Greek authors into 
Latin : but these versions, in which a litertil adherence 



86 INDICATIONS OF THE 

to the original was observed, were scarcely intelligible 
to those for whose use they were intended. His writings 
display, however, much various learning; they were 
condemned as heretical by the Church on account of his 
opinions relative to the Euchari&t. Being driven from 
France by the order of the pope, he took refuge in an 
English monastery ; but there, at the instigation of the 
monks, he, it is said, like Gassianus, was killed by his 
scholars, with their iron styles. 

Before the Danish incursions, the English monasteries 
and churches abounded with men of learning ; but these 
establishments being broken up and the monks dispersed 
by the rude invaders, literature and the arts became 
almost extinct in the country. Alfred, himself a man 
of learning, and a various writer, effected, as is known, 
much towards their restoration, by the re-establishment 
of the ruined monasteries — the erection of many new 
ones — the endowment of schools — the foundation of 
lectureships at Oxford, and by the diffusion of his own 
writings, which, even if he had not been a king, would 
have perpetuated his name. 

Contemporary with the last-named writer was Photius, 
with whom no author of that, or of several succeeding 
ages, can be compared : his works hold up a mirror of 
the literature that was extant in his times. Photius, 
educated for secular employments, and for some time 
engaged in the service of Michael III., was by that 
emperor forcibly invested with the dignity of patriarch 
of Constantinople (858) in the room of Ignatius. That 
he might pass regularly to this elevation, he was made 



SURVIVAKCE OF ANCIENT LITERATURE. 87 

monk, reader, sub-deacon, deacon, priest, and patriarch, 
in the course of six days. From the office thus violently 
assumed, he was, with little ceremony, expelled by 
Basilius, the successor of Michael. Once again, at the 
head of a band of soldiers, he possessed himself of the 
patriarchate, of which, by similar means, he was f.t 
length finally deprived; after which he retired to a 
monastery, where he ended his days. Before his eleva- 
tion, he had composed the most useful and the most cele- 
brated of his works, the Myrwhihlion, which contains, in 
the form of criticisms, analyses, and extracts, an account 
of upwards of 270 works. This treasury of learning 
preserves many valuable fragments from authors whose 
works have perished, and affords important aid in ascer- 
taining the- genuineness of many of the remains of 
ancient literature. 

Eutychius, an Egyptian physician, and afterwards 
(933) patriarch of Alexandria, wrote a universal history, 
which is still extant, and which, though it contains 
numerous fables, exhibits the various learning of the 
author, and of his times. Though so large a number of 
existing manuscripts as appear to have been executed in 
the tenth century, prove that a great degree of activity 
in the reproduction of books prevailed in that age, it 
presents the names of few authors whose works have 
descended to modern times. 

The Eleventh Century is much richer in distinguished 
names, of which it may suffice to mention these : — 

Avicenna, an Arabian physician and Mahometan 
doctor, reduced the science of medicine to a systematic 



88 INDICATIONS OF THE 

form, including almost every thing that had been written 
on the suhject by his predecessors : he was versed in 
Greek literature, and is said to have committed Aris- 
totle's Metaphysics to memory. The first conquests of 
the Saracens in Asia, Africa, and Spain, during the 
seventh and eighth centuries, were almost fatal to the 
interests of learning. But no sooner had they well 
established their power in the conquered countries, than 
the Caliphs sought to rekindle the light of knowledge. 
During two or three centuries, Bagdat in the East, and 
Cordova in the West, were the seats, not only of 
splendid monarchies, but of science, general learning, 
and great refinement. It was, however, chiefly the 
mathematical and physical sciences that were cultivated 
by the Arabians. They possessed imperfect and cor- 
rupted translations of several of the Greek authors, 
especially of Aristotle, Theophrastus, Euclid, and Dios- 
corides ; and they had some general, though imperfect, 
acquaintance with the Greek historians. Some of the 
Latin translations, made by the order of Charlemagne, 
were derived from these Arabian versions. 

Michael Psellus, a Greek physician, and a monk, 
wrote upon subjects of all kinds : " There was no 
science which he did not either illustrate by his com- 
ments, or abridge, or reduce to a better method. — A 
man celebrated for the extent of his acquirements in 
divine and human learnings as his many works, both 
printed and in manuscript, evince." 

;Lanfranc, by birth an Italian, was created archbishop 
of Canterbury by William of Normandy ; he promoted 



SURVIVANCE OF ANCIENT LITERATUEE. 89 

learning among the clergy, and was himself reputed to 
be universally accomplished in the literature extant in 
that age. 

Anselm, the disciple and successor of Lanfranc, in 
the see of Canterbury, was also in repute for general 
learning. 

The works of Suidas, a Byzantine monk, like those 
of Photius, contain a vast store of various learning, 
singularly useful on points of criticism and literary 
history. The lexicon of this writer, besides the defini- 
tion of words, contains accounts of ancient authors of all 
classes, and many quotations from works that have since 
perished. 

Sigebertj a monk of Brabant, has left a chronicle of 
events from A. D. 381 to his own times, 1112, and a 
work containing the lives of illustrious men. 

The name of Anna Comnena, daughter of the 
emperor Alexius Comnenus, and wife of Nicephorus 
Bryennius, distinguishes the early part of the twelfth 
century. She wrote an elegant and eloquent history 
of her father's reign. This work displays not only a 
masculine understanding, but an extensive acquaintance 
with literature and the sciences. 

England produced during this century several eminent 
writers, who were accomplished in the learning of the 
age. Such were William of Malmesbury, Henry of 
Huntington, Geoffrey of Monmouth, and Joseph of 
Exeter — author of two Latin poems, on the Trojan war, 
and the war of Antioch, or the Crusade — and, somewhat 
later, Stephen Langton, archbishop of Canterbury, 



90 . INDICATIONS OF THE 

reckoned the most learned man of western Europe in 
those times. 

Eustathius, arclibisliop of Thessalonica, flourished 
towards the close of the twelfth century. His com- 
mentaries on Homer, besides serving to elucidate the 
Greek language by many important criticisms, drawn 
from sources that have since been lost, contain, like the 
works of Photius and Suidas, innumerable references to 
the Greek classics, and thus furnish the means of ascer- 
taining the integrity and the genuineness of the text of 
those authors, as they are now extant. 

The brothers John and Isaac Tzetzes, critics and 
grammarians of Constantinople, are still consulted as 
commentators upon some of the Greek authors. John 
Tzetzes is a voluminous writer : his extant works give 
evidence at once of his vast acquaintance with literature, 
and of the literary facilities of that age, at least in cities 
such as Constantinople. 

Eobert Grostest (Greathead), bishop of Lincoln, was 
famed for his skill in the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew 
languages, as well as for the bold resistance he made to 
the exactions of the popes upon the English church. 
Camden says of him that " he was a man versed in the 
languages and in general literature in a degree scarcely 
credible, when the age in which he lived is considered ; 
a terrible reprover of the pope, the adviser of his king 
(Henry IIL), and a lover of truth." 

Matthew Paris, one of the earliest of the English 
historians, displays in his works an acquaintance with 
ancient literature, as well as a familiar knowledge of the 



SURYIVANCE OF ANCIENT LITERATUEE. 91 

antiquities of his native country. Like the bishop last 
named, Paris vigorously opposed the papal usurpations 
in England ; nor did he less courageously reprove vice 
in every rank at home. His reputation as a man of 
learning and virtue enabled him to effect a considerable 
reformation in many of the English monasteries. He 
died 1259. The '' Historia Major " of this writer begins 
with the Norman Conquest, and is continued to the year 
of the author's death, 1259. 

The works of Albert, called the Great, a Dominican 
friar, and afterwards, in 1260, bishop of Ratisbon, fill 
one-and-twenty volumes. They are chiefly on the 
physical sciences, but include a sort of encyclopaedia of 
the learning of the age. ''A man of wonderful erudition, 
to whom few things in theological science, and hardly 
any in secular learning, were unknown. On account of 
the extent and variety of his acquirements surnamed 
* the Great^ — an honour conferred upon no other learned 
man during life." Albert, like Roger Bacon, incurred 
among his contemporaries the suspicion of being a ma- 
gician. Learning, in the restricted sense of the term, or 
the knowledge of books, though possessed by a compa- 
ratively small class of persons, was too frequent to excite 
wonder or envy ; but Science, or a knowledge of nature, 
and this acquired, not from Aristotle, but from experi- 
ment, was so rare, that it seldom failed to engender 
both, and to occasion a dangerous accusation of corre- 
spondence with infernal spirits. 

The revival of learning is usually reckoned to have 
comnaenced in the fifteenth century : but in the four- 



92 INDICATIONS OF THE 

teenth a very decided advancement in almost every 
department of literature had taken place. That the 
ignorance which had prevailed in the preceding century 
was wearing away from the bulk of the community in 
several parts of Europe, and that the educated classes 
were acquiring a better taste and more expanded views, 
needs no other evidence than that which is so abundantly 
presented in the works of Dante, of Petrarch, of Boccatio, 
of Chaucer, and of Gower, which were not merely pro- 
duced in that period, but were extensively read and 
admired. 

Fewer instances than those given above might suffice 
to prove, that at no part of that tract of time, which 
extends from the decline of learning in the sixth century, 
to its revival in the fifteenth, was there anything which 
can be called an extinction of the knowledge of ancient 
literature. This proof, it must be acknowledged, is 
much more complete in reference to the Greek, than to 
the Latin authors ; it is also more ample in relation to 
ecclesiastical and sacred, than to profane literature. Of 
all the extant manuscripts, executed in the middle ages, 
perhaps nineteen in twenty belong to the former class. 
The continuance of the eastern empire till the middle of 
the fifteenth century, afforded an uninterrupted protection 
to Greek learning during those periods in which western 
Europe was laid waste by the Gothic nations. Yet even 
those devastations were never universal either in their 
extent, or in their kind. At times when Italy was in 
ashes, the British Islands were secure. And if cities 
were sacked and burned, and if castles, palaces, and 



SURVIVANCE OF ANCIENT LITEEATUEE. 93 

cathedrals were pillaged and overthrown, hundreds 
of religious houses, in strong or secluded situations, 
remained untouched; or if occasionally they were 
subjected to the violence of armies, or to the exactions 
of conquerors, they more often lost their chests, their 
cups and their salvers, than their books. 

Learning and the sciences can flourish and advance 
only where there are the means of a wide and quick dif- 
fusion of the fruits of intellectual labour : but they may 
exist even under the almost total absence of such means. 
This was the case in Europe during the middle ages. 
Knowledge rested with the few whom the inward fire of 
native genius constrained to pursue it: and these few 
were often insulated from each other, and unknown 
beyond the walls within which they spent their lives ; 
and often secluded also by their tastes, even from their 
fellows of the same society. 

In every myriad of the human race, take the number 
where or when we may, there will be found a few indi- 
viduals — born for thought ; and if the vocation of nature 
is not always stronger than every obstacle, it is, for the 
most part, strong enough to overcome such as are of 
ordinary magnitude. Those who are thus endowed with 
the appetite for knowledge, will certainly follow the im- 
pulse, if the means of its acquirement are presented to 
them in early life. Now these means were everywhere 
interspersed among the nations of Europe during the 
middle ages, by the monastic system ; and it may be 
questioned whether there were not then greater chances 
for drawing within the pale of learning the native mind 



94 INDICATIONS OF THE 

of every district, tlian are afforded even by the present 
constitutions of society. The religious houses were so 
thickly scattered through every country, and the con- 
tinual draught from the population for the maintenance 
of the numbers of their inmates (a standing rule of the 
monastic establishments enjoined that the original num- 
ber of each congregation should be maintained) was so 
great, that they must have taken up many more than 
the gifted individuals of every neighbourhood ; and yet 
such individuals would almost certainly be included 
within that enlistment ; for whenever a youth displayed 
a fondness for learning, nothing better could be done for 
him, whether he was the son of a peasant or a noble, 
than to devote him to the service of the Church. The 
monasteries usually contained schools for the youth of 
their vicinities. From these schools the superiors of the 
house had the opportunity of selecting any who gave 
promise of intelligence. 

In the very darkest times, learning insured to its pos- 
sessor a degree of reputation ; and the heads of religious 
houses, in most instances, sought to decorate their estab- 
lishments with some particles of the honours of erudition, 
as well as to recommend them by the possession of 
relics ; and many were eagerly ambitious to enhance the 
literary celebrity of their communities. With this view 
it would be their policy to afford the necessary means 
and encouragement to those who seemed most likely to 
support the credit of the society. " The education of a 
monk, at least in the fourteenth century, consisted of 
church music and the primary sciences, grammar, logic, 



SUEVI VANCE OF ANCIENT LITEEATUEE. 95 

and pliilosophy — obviously tliat of Aristotle. Some 
French and Latin must also have been included ; for 
these were the languages the monks were enjoined to 
speak on public occasions. They were afterwards sent 
to Oxford or Paris to learn theology. Such indeed was 
the encouragement held out to literature, that in a pro- 
vincial chapter of abbots and priors of the Benedictine 
order, held at Northampton A.D. 1343, men of letters 
and masters of art were invited to become monks, by a 
promise of exemption from all daily services." — Fos- 
hroohe. 

Independently therefore of any more direct evidence, 
there would be reason to believe that many if not most 
of the monasteries and conventual churches, at all times, 
included an individual or two whose tastes led him to 
devote his life to study, and who would become the sedu- 
lous guardian and conservator of the books of the house, 
directing the labours of his less intelligent brethren in 
the work of transcribing such as might be falling into 
decay. 

In the estimation of minds ruled by the love of 
books, even if incapable of discriminating the precious 
from the worthless — the worthless, by a principle of 
association, partakes, to a large degree, of the respect 
that belongs in reason only to what is intrinsically 
valuable. A book^ whatever be its subject or its merits, 
is viewed with a fond covetousness by those whose 
passion it is to love books. This feeling must have 
been strong indeed in times when books were hardly to 
be purchased, and when their ideal value included a 



96 

recollection of the toil of transcription. The spirit of 
the ruling superstition, which taught the attachment of 
an incalculable importance to objects intrinsicallyworth- 
less, must also have favoured an undistinguishing 
reverence for books. We need not then be surprised to 
find that works of all classes, though altogether unsuited 
to the taste of the times, were reproduced, from age to 
age, by the monkish copyists. 

While, therefore, all taste for instruction had dis- 
appeared from the face of society — while kings and 
nobles were often as ignorant as artisans and peasants, 
while even many of the clergy retained only some shreds 
of learning, the productions of brighter ages were still 
hoarded and perpetuated, and were made accessible to 
the few whose intellectual ardour carried them beyond 
the standard of their times. 

The reader who would extend his acquaintance with 
the subjects so briefly referred to in this chapter will 
find the means of doing so amply supplied in the work 
of Mr. Maitland which so conclusively establishes the 
fact of the uninterrupted continuance of the intellectual 
life of Europe through those ages which too hastily have 
been spoken of by modern writers as times of universal 
ignorance.* 

* The Dark Ages ; a series of Essays, intended to illustrate the state 
of Eeligion and Literature in the ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth 
Centuries. By the Rev. S. II . Maitland, &C.. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE EEVIYAL OF LEARNING IN THE FOUETEENTH 
CENTURY. 

More tlian half a century before the taking of Con- 
stantinople by the Turks, the learned men of that city, 
apprehensive of the approaching fall of the empire, had 
begun to emigrate into Italy, where they opened schools, 
and became the preceptors of princes and the guides of 
the public taste, which they directed towards the study 
of the classic writers of Greece especially, and even of 
Eome. But it was the fall of Constantinople in 14-53 
which filled the Italian cities with these learned strangers. 
The Italians of that age needed only to receive this 
kind of direction, and to be aided by these means of 
study; for they had for some time been placed under 
those peculiar circumstances which have ever proved 
the most favourable to the advancement of the human 
mind. Throughout a number of independent states 
— crowded upon a narrow space, the same language, yet 
diversified by dialects, w^as spoken. The energy, the 
rivalry, the munificence that accompany an active com- 
merce kept the whole mass of society in movement; 
while the influence of a gorgeous superstition, which 
sought to recommend itself by every embellishment that 



98 THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING 

the genius of man could devise or execute, overruled the 
tendency of successful trade, and directed the ambition 
of princely merchants towards objects more noble and 
intellectual than are those which wealth usually selects 
as the means of distinction. 

The formation of libraries, suggested or favoured by 
the abundant importation of manuscripts from Constan- 
tinople, was the means not only of making more widely 
known the works of those Greek authors which had 
never fallen into oblivion, but of prompting researches 
which issued in the recovery of the Latin writers also, 
many of whom had long been forgotten. The appetite 
for books having thus been quickened, neither cost nor 
labour was thenceforward spared in their accumula- 
tion; and learned men were despatched, in all direc- 
tions, throughout Europe, western Asia, and Africa, 
expressly to collect manuscripts. In the course of a 
few years, most of the authors that are now known to 
us, were brought together in the libraries of Rome, 
I^aples, Venice, Florence, Milan, Vienna, and Paris, 
where they were laid open to those who were best 
qualified to give them forth anew to the world. 

Thus aided by the munificence and zeal of princes 
and popes, the scholars of the fifteenth century sedu- 
lously applied themselves to the discovery, the restoration, 
and the publication of the remains of Greek and Eoman 
literature ; and so it was that in the course of sixty or 
eighty years, most of the works now known had been 
committed to the press. Since that time some few 
discoveries have been made ; but the principal improve- 



IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 99 

ments in classic literature, of later date, have consisted 
in the emendation of the text of ancient authors by 
means of a more extensive collation of manuscripts 
than the first editors had any opportunity to institute. 
This restoration of the remains of ancient works to 
their pristine integrity has not been effected, like that of 
a dilapidated building, or a mutilated statue, by the 
addition of new materials in an imagined conformity 
with the plan and taste of the original work ; but by 
the industrious collection and replacement of the very 
particles of which it at first consisted. 

The invention of printing, which virtually exempts 
books from the operation of the law that subjects al 
things mundane to the decays of time, has greatly 
promoted also the process of their renovation; for, by 
giving to the issue of an edition of a standard work 
a degree of importance, several hundred times greater 
than what belonged to the transcription of a single copy, 
it has called for the employment of a proportionably 
larger amount of learning, diligence, and caution in the 
work of revision ; and then, by enabling each successive 
editor to avail himself of the labours of his predecessors, 
the advantages belonging to the concentration of many 
minds upon the same subject have been secured. 

It is a fact therefore, the significance of which should 
be clearly understood, that, since the fifteenth century^ 
the lapse of time, instead of gradually impairing and 
corrupting the literary remains of antiquity, has inces- 
santly contributed to their renovation and purification. 
Indeed it may be affirmed that, in relation to the amount, 

n2^ 



100 THE EEVIVAL OF LEARNING 

the exactitude, and the certaintj of our knowledge, we 
are not receding from remote ages, but are constantly- 
approaching towards them. In a thousand instances 
what was unknown, or was doubtful, or imperfect, or 
corrupted, at the commencement of the fifteenth century, 
has been ascertained, restored, and completed in the 
nineteenth. The history and the literature of Greece 
and Rome — long inhumed in monasteries, were, at the 
period of their re-appearance, liable to uncertainties and 
to suspicions which not all the learning and industry 
of that vigorous age were able to dispel. But the 
learning and the industry of the four centuries that 
have since elapsed, constantly directed towards the 
same objects, and constantly accumulating a various 
mass of evidence, have left exceedingly few questions of 
literary antiquity open to controversy. 

Thus then, by the mention of some leading facts, we 
have traced the remains of ancient literature up to the 
time when they passed to the press, and when their 
history can no longer be regarded as obscure or ques- 
tionable. Nor can it be thought that this body of 
literature is now liable to the hazards of extinction 
from political changes, or from the decline of learning in 
this or that country ; for unless a universal devastation 
should take its course, at once, over every region of 
the civilized world, the literature now extant in books 
can neither perish, nor suffer corruption. A temple, a 
statue, a picture, or a gem is but one ; and however 
durable may be the material of which it consists, it 
continually decays, and it is always destructible. The 



IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 101 

touch of the sculptor moulders from the chiselled 
surface ; and the time will come when every monument 
of his genius shall have crumbled into dust, and when 
his fame— lost from the marble, shall live only in the 
works of the poets and historians who were his con- 
temporaries. 

Thus it is that the written records of distant ages, 
with the knowledge of which the intellectual, moral, and 
political well-being of mankind is inseparably connected,, 
are secured from extinction by a mode of conservation 
that is less liable to extensive hazards than any other 
that can be imagined. If Man be cut oif from the 
knowledge of the past, he becomes indifferent to the 
future, and thenceforward sinks into the rudeness and 
ferocity of the sensual life. The redundant amplitude, 
therefore, of the means by which this knowledge is 
preserved, only bears a due proportion to the importance 
of the consequences that depend upon its perpetuation. 



CHAPTER X. 

SEVERAL METHODS AVAILABLE FOR ASCERTAINING THE 
CREDIBILITY OF ANCIENT HISTORICAL WORKS, 

The facts referred to in the preceding chapters belong 
in common to ancient books of all classes, and they tend 
to prove that the works of the Greek and Roman writers 
— poets, dramatists, philosophers, critics, and historians 
— which is&ued from the press in the fifteenth and six- 
teenth centuries, may, by means of various and inde- 
pendent evidence, be infallibly traced up to the age 
in which they are commonly supposed to have been 
written. 

The reader's attention is now to be directed to one 
class of those ancient works, namely, those which are pro- 
fessedly historical ; and our object will be to ascertain 
on what grounds, and with what limitations, such works 
deserve our confidence as truthful narratives of facts. 

The very same mode of inquiry which common sense 
suggests, on the most ordinary occasions, when we are 
called upon to estimate the value of testimony, is appli- 
cable to all cases of the like nature. Nor can the impor- 
tance of the consequences that may be involved in the 



CREDIBILITY OF ANCIENT HISTOEY. 103 

issue of the investigation, in a peculiar instance, render 
it invalid, or warrant our rejection of it as unsatisfactory. 
In some lesser particulars the modes of estimating 
oral and written testimony must differ ; but in substance 
the heads of inquiry will be the same. In the case with 
which we have now to do — namely, the credibility of 
the testimony of ancient historians, it is natural to con- 
sider the following points : — 

1. The moral and intellectual character of the writer, 
— if this can be known ; 

2. The means of information he possessed ; 

3. The time and circumstances of the first publication 
of the work ; 

4. The exceptions it may be necessary to make to his 
testimony on particular points ; arising either from the 
peculiar nature of the facts affirmed, or from the apparent 
influence of prejudice — personal, or national ; and — 

5. The agreement of the narrative in question with 
evidence derived from other, and independent sources. 

In judging then of the authenticity of an historical 
work we have, in the first place, to form an estimate of 
the writer's moral and intellectual character and qualifi- 
cations ; supposing that the means of forming an opinion 
on these points are within our reach. 

If the personal integrity of an historian has happened 
to be put to the proof by any well known and remark- 
able events, in which he was concerned, the reader whose 
own character may qualify him to feel the force of such 
proof, will seldom ask for better grounds of confidence ; 
for such errors in matters of fact as a thoroughly honest 



104 MEANS OF ASCERTAININa THE 

historian may be liable to, will seldom be of vital im- 
portance. Even if no such proof of a writer's personal 
integrity exists, and if the circumstances of his life are 
altogether unknown, yet almost every writer leaves in 
his works sufficient indications of his moral dispositions. 
The characteristics of honesty are distinct enough to 
secure the confidence of candid minds ; nor can an in- 
stance be adduced in which they have been so success- 
fully counterfeited as to have stood the test of time. A 
perverse intention as certainly betrays itself in writing, 
as it does in personal behaviour. Nevertheless this sort 
of evidence, though it will be more satisfactory than any 
other to one reader, may be unperceived by another ; for 
cold, feeble, and suspicious minds are destitute of the 
sympathies to which it appeals. 

If the proofs of integrity and veracity in an historian 
are wanting, or are thought to be insufficient, we must 
descend to that sort of evidence which his works afford 
relative to his intellectual qualifications ; and these may 
be such as fully to warrant a general confidence in his pre- 
ference of truth to falsehood. As to the strongest minds, 
such minds attach themselves to truth by an instinctive 
movement : to acquire the knowledge of facts is their 
characteristic passion; — to promulgate this knowledge 
is the function they feel themselves born to fulfil. Nor 
can it happen that the falsification of facts — in which 
neither personal interests nor prejudices are involved — 
should present an adequate inducement to writers whose 
powers of narration enable them to command more 
attention in the direct paths of truth and reality, than 



CREDIBILITY OF ANCIENT HISTORY. 105 

they could hope to gain in the regions of fiction. Every 
gifted mind has its sphere ; and there is a native talent 
for history, as well as a genius for poetry ; and he who 
possesses eminently the former, will as certainly make 
himself conversant with realities, as he who may boast 
the possession of the latter will choose to live among the 
creations of fancy. 

If therefore an historical work displays a healthy 
vigour of intellect — good sense — elevation of sentiment, 
and the specific talent for narration, these qualities may 
safely be held to afford a strong presumptive proof of the 
author's veracity, even though there should be no direct 
means of ascertaining his moral dispositions, or his in- 
tegrity. Those writers who occupy a first rank among 
ancient historians may therefore safely be held to possess 
this presumptive proof of their veracity ; for the reputa- 
tion they have so long enjoyed is attributable, quite as 
much to their talent for narration, as to the interest or 
importance of the story that forms the subject of their 
works. These intrinsic merits contain, then, a tacit 
guarantee for the authenticity of the works that are thus 
adorned. 

On this ground, the good sense, the simplicity, the 
ease, and the accuracy of Herodotus — the stern vigour, 
the elevation, and the dignity of Thucydides, the grace- 
ful simplicity of Xenophon, and the philosophic terse- 
ness of Tacitus, not only win the admiration of the 
reader, but, in different degrees, these qualities invite, 
or demand, his confidence. 

There are moreover qualities of style which, though 



lOG MEANS OF ASCERTAINING THE 

they maj not entitle an author to a place in the first 
rank of writers, must secure for him a high regard as an 
authentic historian. Indeed, in this department of lite- 
rature, those less brilliant and less attractive qualities 
which give security as to an historian's diligence, accu- 
racy, and impartiality, may well be accepted in place of 
the brighter recommendations of genius, or eloquence, 
or powers of description. There is a specific taste for 
details, there is a passion for laborious researches, there 
is a superstitious regard to exactness, and an indefa- 
tigable industry, which, though they may tire the reader 
who seeks only for amusement, will secure the con- 
fidence and attention of the intelligent student of history. 
Thus, for example, the assiduity of Diodorus the Sici- 
lian, the accuracy and good sense of Polybius, and the 
minuteness and amplification of Dionysius the Halicar- 
nassian, give to their works a substantial value which 
goes far to compensate for the want of more shining 
excellences. 

In those historical works which have necessarily been 
compiled from various documents, a sound judgment in 
the selection of materials must be considered as the 
principal merit of an author. In this quality some of 
the ancient historians were certainly deficient ; and yet 
it must be added that to this very want of judgment 
we are indebted for the knowledge of innumerable 
particulars, in themselves curious, or perhaps important, 
which our modern notions of method, consistency, and 
propriety, would greatly have retrenched, or entirely 
have excluded. 



CEEDIBILITY OF ANCIENT HISTORY. 107 

Altliougli, to a certain extent, the genius or talent of 
an historian may be held to vouch for his veracity ; yet 
it is also true that a writer may possess a sort of genius 
which tends to bring his fidelity into suspicion. If, for 
example, he continually indulges his taste for scenes of 
splendour, or terror, or extraordinary action, or if he 
loves to exhibit images of magnanimity or wisdom, 
surpassing the ordinary reach of human nature ; if his 
principal personages are heroes, or if he seems pleased 
to find occasions on which to display his command of 
the nervous eloquence of vituperation, we may well 
conclude that his genius will have tempted him to 
relinquish the merit of being simply exact, or calmly 
just. 

A consideration of personal and national prejudices 
enters, of course, into the estimate that is formed of an 
historian's moral and intellectual character. But these 
will be best adverted to when we come to mention the 
exceptions which it is necessary to make against the 
evidence of historians, on particular points. 

We have next to make inquiry concerning the means 
of information which may have been possessed by an 
ancient historian. 

The same kind of confidence that is due to an histo- 
rian who narrates events in which he was personally 
concerned, cannot be claimed by one who compiles the 
history of remote times from such materials as he can 
collect : for in the former case, if we are assured of the 
writer's veracity and competency, there remains no room 
for reasonable doubt ; at least in reference to those 



108 MEANS OF ASCEETAINING THE 

principal facts of tlie story for the truth of which his 
character is pledged. But in the other case, though we 
may think well both of the writer's veracity and judg- 
ment, the confidence we afford him must still he condi- 
tional, and will be measured by the opinion we form of 
the validity of his authorities. 

The entire mass of ancient history may therefore be 
considered as consisting of two kinds, namely, the 
original and the compiled. In the first class may be 
comprehended, not merely those narratives that are 
strictly personal, such for instance as the history of the 
retreat of the ten thousand Greeks, by Xenophon ; or 
again the Commentaries of Cassar, which describe actions 
wherein the author was immediately concerned, and was, 
in fact, the principal actor ; but those also which relate 
to the events of the au.thor's own times and country, 
and concerning which he had the most direct and un- 
questionable means of becoming accurately informed. 
Such are the history of the Peloponnesian war by 
Thucydides ; and the history of the Catiline conspiracy 
by Sallust, and much of the histories and annals of 
Tacitus, and the history of the reign of Justinian by 
Procopius ; and that of her father's reign by Anna 
Comnena. 

The credibility of historical works of this class must, 
obviously, be determined chiefly upon the grounds 
mentioned in the preceding section; that is to say, 
from those indications of integrity, impartiality, and 
good sense, which the work exhibits. Every reader of 
Thucydides, for example, feels that he may rely with 



CREDIBILITY OF ANCIENT HISTORY. 109 

confidence upon the general authenticity of the narra- 
tive : — the caution and the unwearied assiduity of the 
author in ascertaining the truth of whatever he affirms, 
his exactness in minute circumstances, his eminent good 
sense and fairness, and the dignity of his manner, all 
concur to stamp upon the work, for the most part, the 
seal of truth. In original histories the truth of the story 
and the veracity of the writer are inseparably linked 
together : — both must be admitted, or both should be 
denied. 

But by far the greater part of all extant history 
belongs to the second class ; and yet, among works that 
must rank as compilations, some wide distinctions are to 
be observed ; for there are some of this kind of which 
the authenticity is little, if at all, inferior to that of the 
best original histories ; while many are, in the ordinary 
sense of the term, compilations, and as such deserve 
only a qualified confidence. In regard to the nature 
and probable value of the authorities they have relied 
upon, each historian — and indeed almost every separate 
portion of the works of each writer — must be estimated 
apart. An example or two will be sufficient to show, 
as well the necessity, as the mode of exercising this 
discrimination. 

The nine books of Herodotus aff'ord instances of every 
degree of validity in regard to the probable value of the 
materials that were employed by the author. A reader 
who, in his simplicity, peruses that work, throughout, 
with an equal faith, will be in danger of having his 
indiscriminate confidence suddenly converted into un- 



110 MEANS OF ASCERTAINING THE 

distinguishing scepticism^ by discovering the slenderness 
of the authority upon which some portions of it are made 
to rest. 

Diodorus, the SiciliaUj is reported to have employed 
thirty years in collecting materials for his universal 
history. Like Herodotus, he visited the countries of 
which he speaks — consulting public records — inspecting 
monuments — conversing with the learned, and collecting 
books. In fact his work exhibits many proofs of this 
assiduity ; but yet when some of his statements are 
compared with those of other writers, who were better 
informed on particular subjects, it becomes apparent that 
he exercised too little caution in the selection of his 
authorities ; and that therefore the discrimination of the 
reader, or of the learned annotator, must supply the want 
of judgment in the writer. 

The universal history of Trogiis Pompeius, which is 
extant only in the abridgement made by Justin, seems 
to have been compiled on a plan somewhat similar to 
that of the work last mentioned. It is evident that the 
author, in collecting his materials, employed considerable 
diligence and judgment ; nevertheless, in what relates to 
remote nations, he shows himself often to have been 
egregiously misinformed. A striking instance of this 
kind is furnished in the account he gives of the history 
and religion of the Jews (Book xxxvi. cap. 2) ; for it is 
evident that the author — whether it be Trogus, or Jus- 
tin, must have received his information — not from the 
source from which he ought to have derived it — the 
Jewish records ; — nor even from individuals of that 



CREDIBILITY OF ANCIENT HISTOET. Ill 

nation ; but from prejudiced and ill-informed men of 
the neighbouring countries of Asia or of Africa. The 
account given by Tacitus (Hist. Book v.) of the same 
people, is little more just than is that of Trogus. If 
these instances were to be taken as specimens of the 
accuracy of ancient historians in all similar cases, their 
descriptions of remote nations must be held to be of 
very little value. But there seems reason to believe 
that the history and institutions of the Jews were much 
less known, and were more misrepresented, than those 
of any other people bordering upon the Mediterranean. 

Abundant evidence proves that, from the very earliest 
ages, and in almost all countries, there were persons 
employed and authorized by governments to digest the 
current history of the state. These annals contained, of 
course, the names of kings, and the records of their acts 
and exploits, their decrees and wars. Each city, as well 
as the capitals of empires, had its archives ; and these 
public documents appear to have suggested the idea of a 
more comprehensive form of history. They were cer- 
tainly consulted by those who, in later times, undertook 
the composition of historical works : by these means 
there was imparted to such works more of authenticity 
and exactness than may be generally supposed. Hero- 
dotus, Thucydides, Diodorus, Pausanias, Strabo, Diony- 
sius of Halicarnassus, Plutarch, Arrian, Dion Cassius, 
the Elder Pliny, and others, evidently availed themselves 
with all possible diligence of such public records. 

Ancient historians conversed extensively with official 
persons, wherever they travelled ; and it must be granted 



112 . MEANS OF ASCERTAINING THE 

they were often too ready to accept these oral communi- 
cations as authentic. This is especially to be observed 
in reference to those accounts that were confessedly, 
or that seem to have been received from priests ; for 
that class of persons, too much accustomed to think 
truth their enemy, and deception their business, would 
have thought themselves betraying the interests of their 
order in furnishing simple facts to an inquirer. 

Every city of the ancient world, where civilization 
had made any progress, was crowded with columns, 
statues, busts, monuments, inscriptions, by which every 
memorable event, and every illustrious personage, was 
perpetually presented to the regards of the people, and 
was retained in their recollection. It is certain that 
this monumental and sculptural mode of embodying a 
people's history obtained to a far greater extent in 
ancient cities than it does in those of our times. And so 
it was that to visit a city — to pace its public ways — to 
enter its temples and its halls, was to peruse its history. 
The meanest citizen — even a child, would be able to 
conduct an inquisitive stranger through the streets, and 
to explain to him these memorials of the past. It is 
difficult for us in these times, and in these inclement 
latitudes, to form an adequate notion of the extent to 
which the history of each people was familiarized to 
them by these means ; or how much the living conversed 
with the dead, and identified themselves with whatever 
was heroic or wise in preceding times. These public 
monuments, when collated with the public records, and 
explained by the public voice, furnished historians with 



CREDIBILITY OF ANCIENT HISTORY. 113 

al)unclant materials ; and so great was tlie importance 
attached to them, that there are instances in which 
historians made long journeys for the express purpose 
of examining the sculptures of a city, the history of 
which they had occasion incidentally to mention. 

What was most wanting to give a higher value, in 
point of authenticity, to the materials so diligently col- 
lected by the ancient historians was — that general 
diffusion of information among neighbouring nations 
which would have subjected the fables and the boastful 
pretensions of each people to the animadversion of others, 
and thus have given room for a more ready and com- 
plete collation of discordant evidence on the same 
points. The Greeks were very little acquainted with 
the languages of the surrounding nations ; and they 
were egregiously ignorant of facts in which they were 
not immediately concerned. If the literature of the 
Asiatic nations had been familiarly current in Greece, 
and that of Greece in Asia, both would have been purged 
of many errors and frivolities ; and something more of 
that consistency, expansion, and good sense imparted on 
both sides, which were acquired by the Eoman writers 
in consequence of their acquaintance with the literature 
of Greece. In the department of history, especially, 
such an interchange of light would have enhanced 
immensely the value, as well as augmented the amount 
of knowledge. Knowledge, like the vital fluid, corrupts 
whenever it ceases freely to circulate. 

On this ground, the moderns possess, incomparably, 
an advantage over the ancients; and even if party 



114 MEANS OF ASCERTAINING THE 

interests and political prejudices act more forcibly in 
modern times, the means of correction are also vastly 
more efficient. European nations have, in relation to 
important subjects, a common literature : — all things are 
known by all : national misrepresentations are quickly 
noticed and chastised. The same corrective process is 
actively carried on within each community ; and if par- 
ticular falsifications abound, the ultimate probabilities 
of the prevalence of truth are still more abundant. 

In estimating the credibility of ancient writers — his- 
torians especially, we have to consider the time and 
circumstances of the first publication of such works. 

To ascertain the antiquity of historical works is pecu- 
liarly important, because when that point has been 
placed out of doubt, we obtain, in most instances, a 
conclusive proof of the general truth of the narrative. 
For if a history is known to have been published, and 
widely circulated, and generally admitted to be authentic, 
in the very age when the principal facts to which it 
relates were matters of universal notoriety, and when 
most of the lesser circumstances were perfectly known 
to many of the author's contemporaries, and when some 
of them stood personally related to the events, we 
have the best reasons for confiding in the substantial 
truth and accuracy of the history. 

No pretended narrative, published under circumstances 
such as these, which was altogether untrue in its main 
elements, or which was grossly incorrect in its details, 
could, by any accident, or by any endeavours, have 
gained general and lasting reputation as an authentic 



CREDIBILITY OF ANCIENT HISTORY. 115 

work. No sucli book could endure, and survive, the 
scrutiny of contemporary antagonists ; no such book 
could maintain its reputation through the next age, 
while the means of ascertaining the truth of the nar- 
rative were still extant, and after the interests and 
prejudices of the moment had subsided. 

As in relation to the sources of information that were 
possessed by historians, it has been seen that historical 
works should be divided into two classes — the original, 
and the derived ; so a similar, but not exactly an iden- 
tical division must be made in relation to the circum- 
stances under which such books were at first published. 
In ih.Q first class are to be included those histories of 
the truth of which the author's contemporaries, in 
general, were competent judges; and in the second, 
such, as having been drawn from rare, or recondite, or 
scattered materials — relating to events remote in time 
or place, could not be open to the test of public 
opinion, and could be estimated only by a few of the 
learned class. 

Histories of the first kind may be termed — popular ; 
those of the second — learned. It is evident that learned 
histories, although on different grounds, may deserve a 
high degree of confidence as to their authenticity and 
their accuracy ; and, indeed, on the score of impartiality 
and comprehensive information, and exactness in details, 
they may greatly surpass any of the original narratives 
from which they may have been compiled. For it is 
manifest that a later historian, if he be industrious, 
judicious, and unprejudiced, has the opportunity so to 

i2 



116 MEANS OF ASCERTAININa THE 

collect and collate the various mass of subsidiary testi- 
monies bearing upon particular facts, as shall impart 
much more of consistency to his narrative than can 
belong to any earlier work on the same subject. 

But the direct proof of authenticity must belong 
exclusively to jpopular histories. A work of this class 
is, essentially, a condensation of the common knowledge 
of a nation or community ; it is the universal testimony, 
arranged and compacted by one whose aim it is to found 
his personal reputation as a writer upon the consent and 
approval of his contemporaries. Let it be supposed that 
in passing through the crowded ways of a metropolis, 
we hear, in substance^ the same account of some recent 
and public transaction, from a thousand lips, and from 
opposing parties ; or we read a narrative of this event 
drawn up by a contemporary writer, whose veracity has 
been tacitly or explicitly assented to by the same par- 
ties. The validity of the evidence rests upon the same 
grounds in both cases ; only that for accuracy and con- 
sistency, the accepted written narrative will be found to 
surpass the oral testimony. 

We may take as an example the latter books of 
Herodotus, which, viewed with reference to the distinc- 
tion above mentioned, may be reckoned as belonging to 
the class of popular histories, and may therefore deserve 
the confidence that is due to a narrative that has 
generally been accepted as true by those who vf ere well 
acquainted with the facts it describes, and many of 
whom were personally concerned in the transactions it 
narrates. The history of the Peloponnesian war, by 



CEEDIBILITY OF ANCIENT HISTOEY. 117 

Thucydides, has a still higher claim to Tinimpeachable 
authenticity, inasmuch as the facts were more recent at 
the time of the publication of the work ; and because, 
also, the strongest motives of national rivalry and civil 
discord were then in activity, and were in readiness to 
crush, on the instant, any attempted misrepresentation. 
The author's hope that his work should descend to 
posterity, rested directly upon such an adherence to 
truth, on his part, as should exclude the opportunity of 
giving any plausibility to a charge of extensive or 
wilful falsification. 

Xenophon's history of Greece possesses, in part, a 
claim to credibility on the same ground. But the Cyro- 
p^dia, on the contrary, is altogether destitute of authen- 
tication from this source ; for the Greeks, at the time 
when the work was published, were far from being 
generally competent to judge of the truth of the story. 
The same author's account of the expedition of Cyrus, 
may, in this respect, take a middle place between the two 
above-named works. It was not composed, as there is 
reason to believe, till many years after the writer's 
return from Asia ; and though the general facts were 
still matters of notoriety, the particulars could not then 
be universally recollected; especially as the scene of 
these transactions was so remote from Greece. 

The works of Sallust, the Commentaries of Csesar, 
the works of Tacitus, of Suetonius, of Polybius, claim, 
in whole or in part, the authority of popular histories, 
having been generally accredited as authentic by those 
who were well acquainted with the facts they contain. 



118 CEEDIBILITY OF ANCIENT HISTORY. 

But, excepting some small portions, or particular 
facts, the works of Diodorus, of Dionysius tlie Halicar- 
nassian, of E^epos, of uiElian, of Paterculus, of Curtius, 
of Plutarch, of Arrian, of Appian, of Pausanias, and 
many others, are to be regarded only as learned compi- 
lations, the claim to authenticity of which is of an 
indirect kind. 



CHAPTER XI. 

EXCEPTIONS TO WHICH THE TESTIMONY OF HISTO- 
RIANS, ON PARTICULAR POINTS, MAY BE LIABLE. 

From the very nature of the case the authenticity of 
an historical work can be affirmed only in a restricted 
sense, and must he understood to he open to exceptions 
in particular instances. Such exceptions may he taken 
without impeaching the character of the writer for vera- 
city, or even for general accuracy. It is easy to sup- 
pose that he may have been imposed upon in certain 
cases, by his informants ; or he may have reported things 
that were currently believed in his time, without think- 
ing himself personally pledged for their truth : he may 
not have thought himself called upon, as an historian, 
to discuss questions which might more properly be taken 
up by philosopher s; or he may merely have been neg- 
ligent — here and there, in the course of a voluminous 
work. Yet allowances of this sort must, as it is evident, 
be confined to cases of an accidental kind, and should 
only then be brought forward in the way of apology for a 
writer's mistakes, when he is giving an account of facts 
that were not immediately known to himself. For in a 
narrative of events, of which the writer professes him- 
self to have had a personal knowledge, we must either 



120 GROUNDS OF EXCEPTION TO THE 

admit his veracity, and with it the truth of the facts ; or 
we must deny "both. 

The first point to be considered, when the affirmation 
of an historian in a particular instance is doubted, is — 
The nature of the fact in question, 

1. If, for example, it be a question of numbers, mea- 
sures, or dates, it is always to be remembered — as 
already remarked — that a peculiar uncertainty attaches 
to these matters, in ancient authors, owing to the method 
of notation hy letters^ which were easily mistaken, one 
for another. The numbers of which armies were com- 
posed — -the numbers of the slain in battle — the popula- 
tion of cities — the revenues of states — the distances of 
places — the weight or measure of bodies, and computa- 
tions of time, must, therefore, always be held open to 
question, as to what was actually intended and written 
by the author : this doubt may be entertained without 
in the least derogating from the credit of the work in 
which they occur. Besides the probable corruption of 
copies in such instances, it is to be remembered as to 
many of the particulars above named, that they are far 
more liable to uncertainty,, or mistake, than other facts, 
so that scarcely any degree of diligence and care on the 
part of an historian, will entirely secure him from errors 
on such points. 

2. Geographical details, descriptions of the objects of 
natural history, or accounts of natural phenomena, must 
also, generally, be considered as open to a degree of 
uncertainty, on account of the imperfect information 
upon such subjects, which was possessed by the ancients. 



TESTIMONY OF ANCIENT HISTOEIANS. 121 

And yet the names and relative distances of places in 
all the countries bordering upon the Mediterranean sea, 
as reported by ancient geographers and historians, have 
been to so great an extent authenticated by the re- 
searches of modern scholars, that any apparent incon- 
sistencies should not hastily be assumed as proofs of 
ignorance. But as to whatever relates to countries 
remote from Greece and Italy, or lying beyond the 
bounds of the Persian, Macedonian, Carthaginian, and 
Koman empires, it must of course be received with 
hesitation. Many of these descriptions of remote coun- 
tries, when they come to be compared with the accounts 
of modern travellers, afford, at once, amusing instances 
of exaggeration, and striking attestations of the substan- 
tial authenticity of the works in which they occur. For 
the coincidence of these accounts, in many respects, 
with the facts, as they are now fully known, puts it 
beyond doubt that the historian had actually conversed 
with natives of those countries, or with travellers ; 
while at the same time the distortion of the picture is 
precisely such as might be expected from the channels 
through which the information was derived. 

3. The descriptions so frequently met with in ancient 
writers, of monstrous men or animals — griffins — dragons 
— hydras — pygmies — giants ; or of trees bearing golden 
fruit, of fountains flowing with perfumed liquids, or even 
with the precious metals, may, in most cases, be now 
traced to their origin in actual facts, which, passing to 
the writer through the medium of ignorant, fanciful, or 
interested reporters, assumed the characteristic extrava- 



122 GROUNDS OF EXCEPTION TO THE 

gance of fables. On occasions of this kind it is much 
more becoming to an intelligent student of history to 
make search, among the stores of modern science, for 
the probable source of such accounts, than to pass them 
by with the sneer of indolent scepticism. Some writers 
of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries took so much 
offence at certain passages of this sort in the history of 
Herodotus, as to treat the entire work of that industrious 
and generally accurate writer with contempt, as if it 
were little better than a repository of fables. But these 
rash censures now fall back upon themselves ; for modern 
travellers, in visiting the countries described by the 
father of history, find frequent occasion for noticing the 
correctness of his statements^ or their substantial truth, 
even in those descriptions or relations which may seem 
the most open to suspicion* 

4. In narrating or describing natural phenomena, 
such as meteors, tempests, eruptions of volcanoes, earth- 
quakes, eclipses, all that is needed is to remove from 
the narrative of the historian those explanations, or 
those decorative phrases, by which he endeavoured to 
accommodate such occurrences to the political events of 
the moment, at the suggestion of popular superstitions. 

And here we may take occasion to point out a re- 
markable difference, which forms a characteristic dis- 
tinction in comparing the Jewish writers with those of 
other nations, as to the nature of those marvellous or 
supernatural facts which they describe. The marvellous 
events reported by the Greek and Roman authors may, 
with few exceptions, be classed under two heads ; namely 



TESTIMONY OF ANCIENT HISTORIANS. 123 

— allegorical and poetical combinations, which were so 
obviously fabulous as to ask for no credence, and to 
demand no scrutiny ; or they were mere exaggerations, 
distortions, or misapplications of natural objects or phe- 
nomena. But the Jewish historians and poets do not 
describe, as actually existing^ any such allegorical pro- 
digies ; and their descriptions of real animals, are either 
simply exact, or they are evidently poetical (like those 
in the book of Job), but they are not fabulous. They 
do not throw a supernatural colouring over ordinary 
phenomena, or convert plain facts into prodigies. The 
supernatural events they record — as matters of history, 
are such deviations from the standing order of natural 
causes, as leave us no alternative between a peremptory 
denial of the veracity of the writers, or a submission 
to their affirmation of divine agency. 

The freedom of the Jewish historians, poets, and 
prophets, from those admixtures of the marvellous and 
the natural, with which other ancient writers abound, 
is one of the most remarkable of their characteristics. 
Their descriptions of human nature are neither heroical, 
nor fantastic; their narratives of human affairs are of 
the simplest complexion, and they are strictly consistent 
with the known modes of the time and country. Nor is 
our assent taxed, on any occasion, except when an event 
is recorded which, unless it had actually taken place, 
could not have been affirmed by any but reckless 
impostors. 

Besides those prodigies which are met with in pro- 
fane historians, and that only require to be freed from 



124 GEOUNDS OF EXCEPTION TO THE 

exaggerations appended to natural events hj ignorance, 
poetry, or superstition, there are other accounts which 
are not to be satisfactorily explained so readily, and 
which call for the exercise of some discrimination. They 
are of a kind that must be accounted either altogether 
false, or else must imply, in some sense, a supernatural 
agency. Of the former kind may well be reckoned all, or 
nearly all, those alleged supernatural occurrences which 
no doubt were contrived to give credit to an established 
superstition, or to subserve the designs of statesmen or 
commanders, and which, in most cases, rested exclusively 
upon the testimony of priests. On the other hand, there 
are recorded, in the pages of profane historians, some 
few facts, apparently beyond the range of natural 
causes, which cannot be rejected as untrue, unless we 
do violence to the soundest principles of evidence, and 
which will not be treated with uninquisitive contempt, 
except by a purblind scepticism, that is more nearly 
allied to credulity than to true philosophy. These 
peculiar cases demand a far more full and particular 
consideration than it is compatible with the design of 
this volume to bestow upon them. 

5. The political habits and tastes of the Greeks and 
Romans, induced their historians to supply the per- 
sonages of their story with formal speeches, on all 
remarkable occasions; for oratory was the spring and 
life of every political movement ; and as the machine of 
government could not in fact be made to go without the 
impelling force of harangues, history must not seem to 
omit them. Yet there is little reason to believe that 



TESTIMONY OF ANCIENT HISTORIANS. 125 

authentic reports of public speeches were often, if ever, 
in the possession of historians. Indeed, these brilliant 
portions of the history are often so much in the manner 
of the author, as to leave the reader in no doubt to 
whom to attribute them. Nevertheless it may be ima- 
gmed that, on some memorable occasions, the very words 
of a short speech, or the general purport of an oration, 
was remembered and recorded, and so was worked into 
the speech, as framed by the historian. 

A compliance with the taste of the times seems also 
to have led some writers to use means for diverting the 
attention of their readers, and for relieving the burden of 
the narrative, by introducing digressions, often of a 
trivial kind, which, though not announced as mere 
embellishments, and which perhaps were not purely 
fictitious, are evidently not entitled to an equal degree 
of confidence with the main circumstances of the story. 

6. The secret motives of public men, or the hidden 
causes of great events, are not the proper subjects of 
history, which is concerned only with such facts as may 
be truly and fairly known. The disquisitions of an 
historian on such topics are therefore to be excepted 
against ; for when he so forsakes his function, he must 
expect to be forsaken by his reader ; his errors, on such 
points, do not impeach his veracity; although they 
lower our opinion of his judgment. 

7, Very few facts of importance, such as form the 
proper subjects of history, rest entirely upon the testi- 
mony of a single historian, or are incapable of being 
directly, or remotely confirmed, by some kind of coin- 



126 GROUNDS OF EXCEPTION TO THE 

cident evidence. Whenever therefore a question arises 
relative to the truth of a particular statement, recourse 
must be had, either to the testimony of contemporary 
writers, or to the evidence of existing monuments. But 
even if all such means of corroboration should fail, and 
if we meet with a perplexing silence where we might 
expect to find confirmation, we are by no means justified 
in rejecting the unsupported testimony, merely on the 
ground of this want of correlative support. Many 
instances may be adduced of the most extraordinary 
silence of historians relative to facts with which they 
must have been acquainted, and which seemed to lie 
directly in the course of their narrative. Important 
facts are mentioned by no ancient writer, though they 
are unquestionably established by the evidence of exist- 
ing inscriptions, coins, statues, or buildings. There are 
also facts mentioned only by some one historian, which 
happen to be attested by an incidental coincidence with 
some relic of antiquity lately brought to light ; if this 
relic had remained in its long obscurity, such facts might 
(we see with how little reason) have been disputed. 

Nothing can be more fallacious than an inference 
drawn from the silence of historians relative to par- 
ticular facts. For a full, comprehensive, and, if the 
phrase may be used, a husiness-lihe method of writing 
history, in which nothing important — nothing which 
a well-informed reader will look for, must be omitted, 
is the produce of modern improvements in thinking and 
writing. The general diffusion of knowledge, and the 
activity of criticism, occasion a much higher demand in 



TESTIMONY OF ANCIENT HISTOKIANS. 127 

matters of information to be made upon writers tlian was 
thought of in ancient times. A full and exact commu- 
nication of facts has come to be valued more highly than 
any mere beauties of style ; at least, no beauties of style 
are allowed to atone for palpable deficiencies in matters 
of fact. The moderns must be taught — and pleased ; 
but the ancients would be pleased, and taught. Ancient 
writers, and historians not less than others, seem to have 
formed their notions of prose composition very much 
upon the model of poetry, which, in most languages, 
was the earliest kind of literature. As their epics were 
histories, so, in some sense, their histories were epics. 
Such particulars, therefore, were taken up in the course 
of the narrative, as seemed best to accord with the 
abstract idea of the work — not always those which a 
rigid adherence to a comprehensive plan would have 
made it necessary to bring forward. 

8. The influence of personal or party prejudices is 
indefinite ; and as it may distort the representations of 
an historian almost unconsciously to himself, and with- 
out impugning his general integrity, so will it, in most 
instances, be difficult, especially after the lapse of ages, 
to discover the extent to which the operation of such 
prejudices should be allowed for. But if it cannot be 
ascertained how much of the colouring of the picture is 
to be attributed to the medium through which an his- 
torian exhibits his characters, yet the general hues of 
that medium will hardly escape the observation of an 
intelligent reader ; and when once observed, the illusion 
is destroyed. 



128 GROUNDS OF EXCEPTION TO THE 

But in relation to the influence of prejudices of tliis 
sort, ancient historians unquestionably appear to advan- 
tage when compared with those of modern times. In- 
stances of equanimity might be cited from the Greek 
historians to which few parallels could be adduced, 
drawn from the pages of modern writers. Like the 
sculptures of the same people, the works of the Greek 
historians, though not wanting in the distinctive cha- 
racters, or the moving energy of life, present an aspect 
from which the sublimity of repose is never lost. These 
writers seem to have been conscious that they were 
holding up the picture of their times to the eyes of 
mankind in all ages : they forgot, therefore, the passions 
and interests of the moment 

With ourselves, the instantaneous diffusion of books 
through all ranks of the community, places a modern 
author too nearly in the presence of his contemporaries to 
allow him to think much of posterity. The clamour of 
public opinion rings around his seclusion : his situation, 
in its essential circumstances, is almost the same as 
that of the public speaker — the din of the crowd fills his 
thoughts, and he almost forgets the distant fame which 
his genius might command. This nearness of his audience 
offers therefore to a modern writer every excitement 
and every inducement to the indulgence of party mis- 
representations. If it were not for the correcting in- 
fluences of a free press, nothing worthy of the name 
of history would be produced in modern times. 

9. That the Greeks were not in fact much inferior to 
the representations given of them by their historians. 



TESTIMONY OF ANCIENT HISTOEIANS. 129 

the existing monuments of their philosophy, of their 
poetry, and of their arts, sufficiently attest. Indeed if 
we pass from an examination of these monuments and 
remains to the perusal of Herodotus, Thucydides, and 
Xenophon, we shall be far from thinking that a tone 
of exaggerated encomium is to be charged upon those 
writers. From the pages of the historians alone, we 
should fail to form an adequate idea of the perfection 
that was attained in all departments of literature and 
art by the people whose political affairs they narrate. 
Scarcely half of the history of Greece, in a full and 
philosophical sense of the term, is to be gathered from 
its historians : — we must seek for it rather in the 
remains of its literature at large, — in museums, and. 
cabinets, and among the ruins that still bespread its soil. 
It is not therefore this sort of general misrepresenta- 
tion that is to be suspected in the Greek historians ; for 
more is made certain by other means than is explicitl 
affirmed by them. Yet it has been supposed that, in 
their accounts of military affairs, the Greek historians, 
in order to enhance the glory of their countrymen in 
repelling the Persian invasions, have exaggerated the 
power and extent of the Asiatic monarchy, and the 
numbers of the armies with which those of Greece had 
to contend. Some amount of misrepresentation, of this 
kind, may have been admitted. But yet the pictures 
given by the Greek writers of the wealth and resources 
of the Persian power — of the puerile ambition of its 
monarchs — of the countless hosts which they drove 
before them, by the lash, into Scythia, Egypt, and 

K 



130 GROUNDS OF EXCEPTION TO THE 

Europe — conquering nations rather by devastation tlian 
by military conduct — by tbe mouths, more than by the 
swords of their armies, are so strikingly similar to 
unquestionable facts in the later history of the Asiatic 
empires^ that, as the one cannot be doubted, the other 
need not be deemed incredible. 

10. The arrogance with which, under the term har- 
harians, the Greek writers speak of all nations that were 
not of Greek extraction, naturally suggests the belief 
that we must not expect to derive from them a just idea 
of the civilization of the surrounding nations. In truth, 
not a few indications may be gathered from other 
sources, which authorize the belief that, in communities 
not very distant from Greece itself, or its colonies, a 
degree of intelligence and of refinement existed of 
which it was their shame to be ignorant, or their 
greater shame to have taken so little notice. 

11. With the Romans it was perhaps less from mere 
national vanity, than from a dictate of that deep- 
plotted policy by which they supported their unbounded 
pretensions, that they were induced to misrepresent the 
resources and the conduct of the nations on whose necks 
they trampled. This policy would often produce mis- 
representations of a contrary kind to those suggested 
by national vanity. That universal empire vv^as the 
right of the Roman arms was the principle of the state : 
a reverse of fortune therefore was not .simply a calamity 
• — it was a seeming impeachment of the high claims of 
the republic. The nations must not think that their 
masters could anywhere find equals or rivals in courage 



TESTIMONY OF ANCIENT HISTOEIANS. 131 

or military skill. A defeat hurt tlie political faith of the 
Roman citizen more than it alarmed his fears ; and he 
would rather waive the glorj of having broken an arm 
of equal strength with his own, than confess that there 
was anywhere an arm of equal strength, to resist his 
will. He would choose to sustain the aggravated 
shame of having been beaten by an inferior, rather than 
redeem a part of his dishonour by acknowledging that 
he had encountered a superior. A writer therefore 
could not do full justice to the courage, conduct and 
successes of the enemies of Rome, without offering 
such an outrage to the common feeling as would have 
amounted almost to treason against the state. Modern 
historical criticism — exercised by such a writer as 
ISfiebuhr, has sufficed to remove from early Roman 
history a very large amount of the misstatements and 
the exaggerations which Livy and his predecessors had 
accumulated around it. 



k2 



CHAPTEK XII. 



CONFIRMATIONS OF THE EVIDENCE OF ANCIENT HIS- 



MOST of the principal facts mentioned by ancient 
historians, as well as many particulars of less import- 
ance, are confirmed by evidence that is altogether 
independent, both in its nature, and in the channels 
through which it has reached us. In truth, although 
the narratives of historians serve to connect and explain 
the entire mass of information that has descended to 
modern times, relative to the nations of remote anti- 
quity, they are far from being the sole sources of that 
information : — perhaps they hardly furnish so much as 
a half of the materials of history. These independent 
sources of information may be classed under the follow- 
ing heads : — 

1. The remains of the general literature of the 
nations of antiquity: — their poetry, and their oratory 
especially, and their philosophical treatises. 

2. Chronological documents or calculations. 

3. Facts — geographical and physical, which are 
unchanged in the lapse of time. 



INDEPENDENT EVIDENCE. 133 

4. Those institutions, usages, or physical peculiarities 
of nations, which have been subjected to little change. 

5. The existing monuments of ancient art — paintings, 
sculptures, gems, coins, and buildings. 

The information derivable from these sources answers 
two distinct purposes, namely— in the first place, that of 
contributing to the amount of our knowledge of the 
state of civilization among ancient nations ; and then 
that of furnishing the means of corroborating or of cor- 
rectmg the assertions of historians on particular points. 
It is obvious that to go through the particulars that 
are comprehended under the general heads above- 
named, or to do so with any degree of precision, would 
greatly exceed the limits of this book; indeed, the 
object aimed at in it will be sufficiently attained by 
merely pointing out, in a few instances, what is the 
nature, and what is the value of this sort of eorrobora- 
tive evidence. 

1. Corroboratory evidence, derived from books — 
coming as it does through similar, if not the very same 
channels with those through which we receive the works 
of historians, and being of the same external form — is 
likely to produce less impression on the mind than its 
real validity ought to command. And yet, when it 
comes to be examined in detail, nothing can be more 
conclusive than the proof which thus arises from coin- 
cidences of names and allusions, such as are found 
scattered through the works of dramatists, orators, poets, 
and philosophers, with the more formal statements of 
contemporary historians. If, for example, the Greek 



134 SOUKCES OF 

dramatic writings — those of jEschylns, Sophocles, Euri- 
pideSj Aristophanes, and the Orations of Demosthenes, 
are collated with the narrations of Thucydides, Xeno- 
phon, Diodorus, and Plutarch; — or if the Epistles and 
the Orations of Cicero, and the Satires of Horace, and 
of Juvenal, are compared with the historical works of 
Livj, of Sallust, of Tacitus, and of Dion Cassius, so 
manj points of agreement present themselves, as must 
convince everj one that these historical assertions, and 
these allusions, must have had a common origin in actual 
facts. 

Yet it is not merely by presenting special coinci- 
dences, on particular points, that the remains of ancient 
literature confirm the evidence of historians ; but it is 
also by furnishing such pictures of the people among 
whom they were current, as to all points of their poli- 
tical, religious, and social condition, as consist with the 
representations of historians. To exhibit the full force 
of this sort of evidence, let it be imagined that the 
names of men^ and of cities, and countries, having been 
withdrawn from the works of the classical poets, orators, 
and philosophers, it were attempted to associate, as 
countrymen and contemporaries, Herodotus, Thucy- 
dides and Xenophon, with Cicero, Horace and Seneca ; 
or Tacitus, Caesar and Suetonius, with Isocrates, Plato 
and ^schylus : every page in the one class of writers, 
would present some incongruity with the accounts 
given of the people by the others. On the contrary, in 
perusing the contemporary writers of the same nation, 
whatever may be the diversities of their style or sub- 



INDEPENDENT EVIDENCE. 135 

ject, we feel that thej were all surrounded by the same 
objects, and that they were subjected to the same 
influences. 

2. Those corroborative evidences that are derived 
from chronological inscriptions, or from astronomical 
calculations, have served in some notable instances to 
confirm, or to correct, the testimony of ancient writers, 
in a very conclusive manner. It should be remembered 
that ancient historians, being destitute for the most part 
of sufficiently precise chronological information, and 
being themselves also less observant of dates than the 
modern style of historical composition demands, leave 
the subject open to many difficulties ; and to these diffi- 
culties is added that uncertainty which belongs pecu- 
liarly, as we have before remarked, to whatever relates 
to numbers, in the text of ancient authors. It must not 
however be supposed that ancient chronology is alto- 
gether unfixed ; for though it may be impossible now 
to determine the precise time of many events, the 
results of different lines of calculation are seldom so 
widely discordant as to be of much importance in the 
general outline of history. 

3. Those inequalities of the earth's surface which 
have undergone no great change within the historic 
period, and also the course of rivers^ and the pecu- 
liarities of climate, and the vegetable and animal pro- 
ductions of each country, though they are not absolutely 
immutable, have not, even in the lapse of many ages, 
undergone any such changes as to perplex us in fixing 
the identity of ancient and modern names. There are 



136 SOURCES OF 

now open to our olbservation, the same scenes, and tlie 
same physical appearances which were described, or 
alluded to, by historians, twenty centuries ago; and 
finding, as we do, their accounts of these permanent 
objects to accord with present and well-known facts, 
we accept such coincidences as a pledge of the general 
accuracy and authenticity of the writings in question ; 
for if an historian is proved to have been careful to 
obtain correct information on points that were indirectly 
connected with his subject, it is but just to believe that 
he was at least equally exact in regard to events, and 
to what belongs more immediately to his narrative. 

We have already adverted to the geographical accu- 
racy of Herodotus, and have remarked that the descrip- 
tions he gives of countries, and of their productions, 
are such, for the most part, as to put it beyond doubt 
that he had himself seen most of the objects which he 
describes. That the Greek historians should be exact 
in what relates to the geography and productions of 
their own narrow soil, is nothing more than what must 
be expected. But when we find them accurate also in 
their descriptions of regions remote from Greece, and 
which were very imperfectly known to their countrymen 
in general, they furnish a proof of authenticity that 
may be extended to cases in which we are obliged to 
accept their testimony unsupported by other evidence. 

A pertinent instance of this kind is furnished in the 
case of Arrian's history of Alexander's expedition — his 
Indian history, and his description of the shores of the 
Indian Ocean. The geographical details which occur in 



INDEPENDENT EVIDENCE. 137 

these works are, in general, so exact that modern tra- 
vellers find little difficulty in identifying almost every 
spot he mentions. This proof of accuracy well supports 
the claim to the possession of authentic information 
which is advanced by the author at the commencement 
of his work, where he declares that his history has heen 
compiled from the memoirs of Ptolemy and of Aristo- 
hulus — two of Alexander's generals ; and that he had 
collated their assertions on all points, and had added, 
from other sources, only such particulars as seemed to 
he the most worthy of credit. 

Now when Arrian's history of Alexander's expedition 
is compared with that of Quintus Curtius, on points 
of geography, it will be found that the latter writer 
was either utterly ignorant on the subject, or that he 
was quite indifferent as to the correctness of his state- 
ments. This proof therefore of want of diligence, or 
want of information, detracts very greatly from the 
historian's authority on all points which rest on his 
sole testimony. We might say that it is fatal to his 
credit, in all such instances. Although an able and 
attractive writer, Curtius awakens the reader^s suspicion 
by the very character of his style, which betrays his 
fondness for decoration and enlargement : — this suspicion 
is then not a little enhanced when we meet with direct 
evidence of his inaccuracy, in matters of fact. 

The permanence of the names of places, under many 
modifications in the value of vowels or consonants, 
affords a very curious, as well as important means 
of authenticating the assertions of ancient historians. 



138 SOURCES OF 

Innumerable instances miglit be adduced in wbicb the 
names of obscure villages in Asia Minor, Armenia, 
Persia, Arabia, Palestine, Egypt, and Nubia, recall to 
every reader's recollection the names occurring in tbe 
ancient histories of the same countries. Those remote 
names could never have found their way into the pages 
of the Greek and Roman historians if they had not 
sought, or had not carefully employed, genuine docu- 
ments in the composition of their works. 

In many particulars the statements of the ancient 
geographers — Strabo, Ptolemy, Pliny, Stephen of By- 
zantium, and Pausanias, are at variance with each other, 
and with the narratives of contemporary historians ; but 
in by far the greater number of instances there is nearly 
as much accordance as is usually found among modern 
travellers. And when the ancient geography, whether 
collected from geographers or historians, comes to be 
collated with the modern — whatever difficulties may here 
and there present themselves in the way of a perfect 
conciliation, no one can doubt that the former — taken 
as a whole — is a genuine account of facts, collected with 
industry, by actual observation. 

4. A similar species of confirmation arises from a com- 
parison of the descriptions given by ancient historians 
of the physical peculiarities, the manners, and the usages 
of nations, with facts known to attach to the modern 
occupants of the same countries. If national manners 
and usages are less permanent than the features of the 
country, or than the productions of the soil, they are 
much more so than might be supposed, when we recollect 



INDEPENDENT EVIDENCE. 139 

how many revolutions have swept across the surface 
of society in the course of ages. Though man is not 
absolutely the creature of the soil that supports him, 
and though he does not retain every peculiarity which 
descends to him from his progenitors, yet neither is he 
ever free from some permanent mark of tribe, of climate, 
or of locality. Or if, by the development of mind, and 
the advance of civilization, his circumstances and his 
manners undergo, apparently, a thorough change, yet 
even then will there remain many lesser indications of 
his obsolete condition ; and many habits and usages, that 
are too minute and trivial to have attracted attention — 
if they did not awaken historical recollections, will 
continue to identify the modern with the ancient race. 
Four conquests, and eighteen centuries, have not wholly 
obliterated from the English people all traces of their 
British ancestors ; and in some races, for example — the 
Egyptian, the Arabian, the Jewish, and the Scythian, a 
much more perceptible sameness has been maintained 
throughout even a longer course of ages. 

Such living monuments of antiquity are not only 
highly curious in themselves, but they are very sig- 
nificant in illustration of ancient history. Yet it must 
be acknowledged that the materials for this kind of con- 
firmatory comment are the most abundant where they 
are of the least value ; and often the scantiest, where 
they would be the most prized. For it is among half 
civilized nations, that manners and modes of life are 
permanent ; while the advance of intelligence and refine- 
ment produces changes so great as to leave only the 



140 SOURCES OF 

faintest traces of aboriginal characteristics. Thus, in 
the plains of Asia, and in the deserts of Africa, we find 
nations which, as to their physical peculiarities, their 
manners and their usages, differ little, if at all, from the 
descriptions given of their predecessors on the same soil 
by Herodotus, or Strabo. Meanwhile the successive 
occupants of the European continent — active, intelligent 
and free, have passed under all forms of human life, and 
therefore have retained few resemblances to their remote 
ancestors. 

One climate, indeed, necessitates a much greater 
degree of permanency in the habits of the people than 
another. The fervours of the equatorial regions, and 
the rigours of the north, subdue man to a passive con- 
formity with certain modes of life. These extremes of 
temperature avail much to vanquish his individual will, 
to forbid the caprices of his tastes, and to restrain his 
invention. But in temperate climates, almost every 
mode of life is found to be practicable, and almost all 
modes will therefore in turns be practised. 

The permanency of manners, even where the most 
extensive revolutions have taken place, is strikingly 
displayed among the modern people of Greece. The 
successive generations of six- and- twenty centm'ies have 
passed away since the Iliad and Odyssey were composed; 
and yet, when the ancient race, as it is described by 
Homer, comes to be compared with the modern people, 
the points of sameness are very many. Not only is the 
language essentially the same ; but the modes of thinking 
and feeling — the superstitions — the costumes — the habits 



INDEPENDENT EVIDENCE. 141 

of tlie inliabitants of particular spots have, in a large 
number of instances, been very little affected bj the 
lapse of time. If the peculiarities of the race, as de- 
scribed by Homer, may still be recognised, it is no 
wonder if we find, in the present manners of the people, 
numerous illustrations of the pictures drawn by the 
historians of a later age. The descriptions given by 
Cgesar and Tacitus of the manners of the Gauls, Britons, 
and Germans, are capable of receiving a like authenti- 
cation, though not in an equal degree, from usages still 
existing among the northern nations of Europe. 

5. The existing remains of ancient art would very 
nearly supply the materials for a body of history, even 
if all books had perished. These relics sometimes 
serve to establish particular facts, and sometimes they 
afford ground from which to deduce general inferences, 
relative to the wealth, the power, and the intelligence of 
the nations to whom they belonged. In either case the 
evidence they yield is of the most conclusive kind ; for 
the solid material is actually in our hands, and it is 
before our eyes, and in most cases it can be liable to no 
misinterpretation. 

So extensive are the inferences that may fairly be 
derived from these existing remains, that, as to some 
ancient nations, we know far more from this source, than 
is to be gathered from the entire evidence of written 
history: this, at least, is certain, that what is thus 
learned, if it be in some respects vague, possesses more 
of the substantial quality of knowledge, and much 
better deserves to be called history than do those bare 



142 SOUECES OF 

catalogues of the names of kings, which are often digni- 
fied with the term. A name, or twenty names, uncon- 
nected with general facts — or a date, serving only to 
bring a mere name into its proper place in a chronological 
chart, may indeed impart the semblance of history, but 
it affords almost nothing of the substance. What we 
gather, for example, from written history, relative to the 
Assyrian empire, or to the early kingdoms of Greece, is 
much less significant than are the historical inferences 
relative to the people of Egypt, which are fairly deducible 
from the remains of their architecture. 

The existing monuments of art, which are available 
as sources of historical information, are, 1. buildings 
and public works ; 2. sculptures and gems ; 3. in- 
scriptions and coins ; 4. paintings, mosaics, and vases ; 
and 5. implements and arms. 

For the purpose of confirming, or correcting, or 
illustrating, the assertions of historians on particular 
points, recourse must most often be had to the evidence 
of inscriptions and coins ; and every one knows that 
from these sources all the leading facts of Greek and 
Koman history may be authenticated. The latter are 
especially important, both on account of the information 
they convey, and of the mode of its transmission to 
modern times. No one could call in question the utility 
of inscriptions for the illustration of history: but the 
student who cannot devote his undivided attention to 
the subject, or who has not access to the fullest and best 
sources of information, may very probably waste his 
time upon documents that he will afterwards discover 



/ INDEPENDENT EVIDENCE, 143 

to be extremely fallacious. In no department of anti- 
quarian learning have misrepresentations, deceptions, 
and errors of inadvertency more abounded. Authors 
who were long regarded as unexceptionable authorities 
are found to deserve little confidence, and on such points 
a writer who is not worthy of great confidence, is worthy 
of none. 

Coins are concise public records. The device they 
bear is seldom devoid of some significant allusion to 
the peculiar pretensions of the realm or city ; the image, 
corresponding in form and expression with sculptures 
or descriptions, fixes the identity of the personage ; and 
the legend furnishes names, and other specific notices. 
Coins, therefore, concentrate several kinds of evidence ; 
and, like books, by their multitude, by their wide dif- 
fusion, and by the mode of their conservation to modern 
times, they are, with very few and unimportant excep- 
tions, placed far beyond the reach of fraud or deception. 
The cabinets of the opulent, in all countries, are filled 
with series of these historical records ; and the spade is 
every day turning up counterparts to those already 
known. Statues and buildings have been discovered 
here and there ; but coins are the produce of every soil 
which civilization has at any time visited. 

Sculptures are either historical or poetical; those of 
the first kind yield a confirmation to history which, 
though indefinite, is worthy of attention. That the 
principal personages whose names occur in history were 
represented by the artists of their times, is not only 
probable, but is a well-known fact. Statues or busts 



144 SOURCES OF \ 

of tlie most distinguished public persons were given to 
tlie world by several artists, and tliej were placed in all 
the principal cities of the republic or the empire, that 
claimed any reflection of their glory. The principle of 
competition among artists would secure some tolerable 
uniformity — the uniformity of resemblance to the 
originals, among these statues and busts ; nor do we at 
all pass the bounds of probability in supposing them to 
be, in general, real and good portraits. There is, 
besides, in most of them, an air of individuality, 
which at once convinces the practised eye of their 
authenticity. 

So much as this being assumed, the congruity of 
these forms with the character of the men, as it is 
presented on the page of history, carries with it a proof 
of the truth of those records which few observers of the 
human physiognomy will feel disposed to question. In 
order to perceive the force of this kind of evidence it 
is not necessary to call for the aid of any system of 
physiognomical science (so called) ; every one's intuitive 
discernment will suffice for the purpose. Let the 
simplest observer of faces and forms, who has read the 
history of Greece and Rome, look round a gallery of 
antique statues and busts; and he will be in little 
danger of misnaming the heads of Theraistocles and of 
Alexander, of Plato and of Cicero, of Phocion and of 
Alcibiades, of Demosthenes and of Euclid, of Julius 
Caesar and of Nero. To those whose eye is exercised 
in the discrimination of forms, the best executed of 
these antique heads speak their own biography with 



INDEPENDENT EVIDENCE. 145 

a distinctness that gives irresistible attestation to the 
accounts of historians. 

Mythological or poetical sculptures afford inferences 
of a more general kind ; most of which are suggested 
also by an examination of the temples of which they 
were the furniture. The exqu.isite forms of the Grecian 
chisel declare that the superstition they embodied, 
although it was frivolous and licentious, was framed more 
for pleasure than for fear ; — that it was rather poetical 
^than metaphysical. They do indicate certainly that 
the religious system of the people was not sanguinary 
or ferocious ; and that it was not fitted to be the engine 
of priestly despotism. One would imagine that the 
ministers of these deities were more the servants of the 
people's amusements, than the tyrants of their con- 
sciences, their property, and their persons. 

The Grecian sculptures give proof that the super- 
stition to which they belonged, however false or absurd 
it might be, was open to all the ameliorations and 
embellishments of a highly refined literature. In 
contrast with these are the sacred sculptures of India, 
which disgust us as undisguised and significant repre- 
sentatives of the horrid vices enjoined and practised by 
the priests. But the lettered taste of the Greeks taught 
their artists to invest each attribute of evil with some 
form of beauty. The hideousness of the vindictive 
passions must be hid beneath the character of tranquil 
power ; and the loathsomeness of the sensual passions 
must be veiled by the perfect ideal of loveliness. Art, 
left to itself, does not adopt these corrections; nor do 

L 



146 SOUECES OP 

tlie autliors of superstitious systems ask for them. 
There must be poetrj, there must "be philosophy at 
hand, to whisper cautions to the wantonness of art, and 
to confine its exuberances within the limits of propriety. 

When the remains of ancient structures are examined 
for the purpose of collecting thence historical infor- 
mation, they must be viewed under three distinct 
aspects ; namely — the resources that were required for 
their construction — the purposes to which they were 
devoted, and the taste which they display. A few 
instances will show the nature, and the extent of the 
inferences that may fairly be drawn from such an 
examination. 

The remains of Egyptian architecture have long 
outlasted the fame of the men whose names they were 
charged to transmit to distant times. Or if some few 
names have been handed down by historians, or have 
been drawn from their hieroglyphical concealments by 
the genius of modern research, the whole amount of 
such discoveries may be comprised in a few lines, and it 
falls very far short of conveying anything like a history 
of the people. But some general facts relative to the 
wealth, the commerce, the industry, the institutions, the 
manners, and the superstitions of the Egyptians, have 
been reported by historians ; and the descriptions of 
that country and of its people, given by Herodotus, 
Strabo, Diodorus, and Plutarch, confirmed as they are 
by incidental allusions in other writers, and especially 
by a few significant expressions occurring in the Jewish 
Scriptures, afford a tolerably complete idea of this, the 



INDEPENDENT EVIDENCE. 147 

most extraordinary of all nations — ancient or modern. 
l^ow this testimony of the historians is corroborated, 
with a peculiar distinctness, by those ruins which still 
lead hosts of travellers to the banks of the Nile. 

These stupendous remains attest, in the first place, 
the unbounded wealth that is affirmed by historians to 
have been at the command of the Egyptian monarchs ; 
— a wealth derived chiefly from the extraordinary 
fertility of the country, which, like the plains of 
Babylon, yielded a three hundred-fold return of grain. 
And as the revenues of a vast empire were added to 
the home resources of the Babylonian monarchs, so the 
products of a widely extended commerce came in to 
augment the treasures of the Egyptian kings. The 
mouths of the Nile were the centres of trade between 
the eastern and the western vforlds ; and that river, after 
depositing a teeming mud in one year, bore upon its 
bosom in the next, the harvest it had given, for the 
feeding of distant and less fertile regions. Nor was the 
industry of the people — numerous beyond example, 
wanting to improve every advantage of nature. But 
for whom was this unbounded wealth amassed, or 
under whose control was it expended ? The testimony 
of historians coincides with that of the existing ruins in 
declaring that a despotism — political and religious — of 
unexampled perfection, and very unlike anything that 
has since been seen, disposed of the vast surplus 
products of agriculture and of commerce for the purposes 
of a gigantic egotism. 

By what forms of exaction or of monopoly the 
l2 



148 SOURCES OF 

Egyptian kings held, at their command the property 
and the services of the people, cannot be certainly 
determined; but it seems as if one only centre of 
real possession was acknowledged, and that habits oi 
thinking and acting — bound down to unalterable modes, 
by a thousand threads of superstitious observance, 
favoured the tranquil transfer of all rights to the head 
of the state. With such resources therefore at his 
disposal, and with a people much better fitted by their 
temperament and habits for labour than for war — the 
inhabitants of fertile plains have ever been less warlike 
than those of mountainous regions — the master of 
Egypt might find it easy to expend his means in 
realizing monstrous architectural conceptions. 

That degree of scientific skill in masonry which 
belongs to a middle stage of civilization, in which the 
human faculties are but partially developed, is what the 
accounts of historians would lead us to expect ; and it 
is just what these remains actually display. There is 
science — but there is much more of cost and of labour 
than of science. The works undertaken by the Egyp- 
tian builders were such as a calculable waste of human 
life would be certain to complete ; but they were not 
such as involve a mastery of practical difiiculties by 
means which mathematical genius must devise. 

The Egyptian builders could rear pyramids, or exca- 
vate catacombs, or hew temples from out of solid rocks 
of granite ; but they attempted no works like those that 
were executed by the artists of the middle ages. For 
to poise so high in air the fretted roof and slender spire 



INDEPENDENT EVIDENCE. 149 

of a Gothic Minster required a cost of mind greater far 
than appears to have been at the command of the 
Egyptian kings. 

The purposes to which the structures of Egypt 
apparently were devoted, agree also with the accounts 
of historians. The established despotism was indeed 
such as to permit capricious sovereigns to indulge their 
personal vanity without restraint ; nevertheless, better 
and more wise maxims of government were acknow- 
ledged, and often followed; and so it is that the traces 
of public works of vast extent, and of great utility, 
everywhere attest the intelligence and the good disposi- 
tions of some of the Egyptian kings. Canals, piers, 
reservoirs, aqueducts, are not less abundant than tem- 
ples and pyramids. Indeed, the temples of Egypt must 
not be placed altogether to the account either of the 
vanity of kings, or of the pride of priests; for as the 
Eoman emperors expended a portion of the tribute of the 
world in the erection, of theatres for the gratification of 
favoured provinces, so the Egyptian kings, for the plea- 
sure of their subjects, reared, in all parts of the land, 
those sacred menageries of worshipful bulls, crocodiles, 
cows, apes, eats, dogs, onions, and other— the like august 
symbols of the common religion. It is recorded that the 
two kings whose names were held in execration by 
posterity on account of the cruel labours they exacted 
from their people, were not builders of temples— but of 
pyramids. 

A mound of earth, one foot in height, satisfies that 
feeling of our nature which impels us to preserve from dis- 



150 SOUECES OF 

turbance the recent remains of the dead ; but a pyramid 
five bmidred feet in height was not too tall a tomb for 
an Egyptian king! The varnished doll, hideous to 
look at, into which the art of the apothecary had con- 
verted the carcase of the deceased monarch, must needs 
rest in the deep bowels of a mountain of hewn stone ! 
More complete proof of the utter subjugation of the 
popular will in ancient Egypt cannot be imagined than 
what is afforded by the fact, that so much masonry 
should have been piled, for such a purpose, almost to the 
clouds. The pyramids could never touch the general 
enthusiasm of the people, they could only gratify the 
crazy vanity of the man at whose command they were 
reared. These tapering quadrangles, as they were the 
product, so they may be viewed as the proper images of 
a pure despotism ; vast in the surfptce it covers, and the 
materials it combines, the prodigious mass serves only 
to give towering altitude to — a point. 

A literature like that of Greece would have protected 
the Egyptians from the toils of building pyramids : — for, 
had they possessed poets like Homer, historians like 
Thucydides, and philosophers like Aristotle, their kings 
would neither have dared, nor indeed have vfished, to 
attach their fame to bulks of stone, displaying no trace 
of genius, either in the design, or the execution. The 
Egyptian kings consigned their names to the custody of 
pyramids, which have long since betrayed the trust. — 
The Greeks committed the renown of their chiefs to the 
frail papyrus of the Nile, and the record has shown itself 
to be imperishable. 



INDEPENDENT EVIDENCE. 151 

The accordance of the taste displayed in the forms 
and embellishments of the Egyptian temples, with the 
temperament and the institutions of the people, as de- 
scribed by historians, deserves to be noticed ; though, of 
course, no very positive conclusions ought to be drawn 
from facts of this class. It is the province of art, what- 
ever may be the material upon which it works, to com- 
bine, in various proportions, the two elements of effect 
— sameness and difference — uniformity and variety — 
harmony and opposition. A work of art in which these 
principles should be wholly disjoined, or which should 
exhibit only one of them— if that were possible — might 
amaze the spectator, but conld never produce pleasure. 
To combine them in exact accordance with the intended 
effect of the work, is the perfection of art. If the im- 
pression to be produced inclines to the side of grandeur 
and sublimity, the principle of sameness or uniformity 
must predominate ; and every variety that is admitted 
in the embellishments must be quelled by constant repe- 
titions in the same form. But if the sentiment to be 
awakened is that of pleasure — gaiety, and voluptuousness, 
the second principle, or that of difference, variety, and 
opposition, must triumph over the first. Now a uniform 
preference of one of these styles in works of art, must 
be held to characterise the prevailing temper of the 
people whom they are intended to please. 

But now the Egyptian architecture is distinguished, 
perhaps beyond that of any other people, by its subjec- 
tion to the law of uniformity, and by the apparent aim 
of the artist to vanquish the imagination of the spectator 



152 SOURCES OF 

by an aspect of sublimitj ; to kindle tlie sentiment of 
awe was the intention ; and bulk and sameness were tlie 
means. 

This character of Egyptian art^ which prevails almost 
without exception among the existing remains of the 
more ancient structures, comports well with, the idea of 
the subjugation of the people beneath a system of stern 
religious and civil despotism. And yet further, it has a 
remarkable significance when considered in its relation 
to the nature of the worship to which these temples were 
devoted. While we gaze with amazement and awe at 
the mas&y buttresses of these structures — at their tower- 
ing obelisks — at their long ranges of columns, formed as 
if to support the weight of mountains, and at the colossal 
guards of the portico, we have to recollect that these 
temples were the consecrated palaces of crocodiles, of 
cows, of ichneumons, of dogs, cats, or apes. It seems 
as if, for the very purpose of effecting the most complete 
degradation of the popular mind, the national supersti- 
tion had been framed from the vilest materials it was 
possible to find ; while, to enhance and secure its influ- 
ence, a nobly-imagined art combined every element of 
awful grandeur. The imagination was first seduced by 
a show of sublimity, in order that the moral sense might, 
the more effectually, be, in the end, trodden in the dust. 

The mathematical ornaments, and the vegetable imi- 
tations of the Egyptian architecture might be noticed, 
which, besides being admirably imagined and executed, 
are in perfect harmony with the general taste of the 
buildings, and thus consist with what we suppose to 



INDEPENDENT EVIDENCE. 153 

have been its main intention. But the character of the 
human figures attached to many of the temples, demands 
attention. 

Not a few of these figures exhibit the highest degree of 
excellence — within certain bounds ; these bounds are — 
a strict adherence to the national contour and costume 
(neither of which could have been preferred by artists 
who had seen the people of Europe and Asia) and a 
rigid observance of architectural directness of position. 
In a very few examples the artists so far transgressed 
the rules thus imposed upon them, as to prove that they 
had the command of attitudes more varied than those 
which ordinarily they exhibited ; indeed, it is contrary 
to all analogy to suppose, that so much executive talent 
should exist along with an incapacity to give more life 
and variety to the figure. The Chinese, who as artists 
are vastly inferior to the ancient Egyptian sculptors, 
ordinarily pass far beyond them as to the range of action 
and position which they give to their human figures. 
Even if a taste so rigid had belonged to the first stage 
of art, it must — unless otherwise restricted, have admitted 
amelioration in the course of time. The artists of a 
second age would no doubt have sought reputation by 
venturing beyond the limits within which their prede- 
cessors had been confined. 

It seems then hardly possible to find a reason for that 
frozen uniformity which is exhibited in the Egyptian 
sculptures, unless we suppose that art — like everything 
else,, was the slave of an omnipresent despotism. The 
human forms which support the porticos or roofs, stand 



154 SOURCES OF 

and look as if tliey knew tkemselves to be in the pre- 
sence of Superior Power, Freedom of position, or an 
attitude of force, or of agility, or even of inattentive 
repose, or any indication of individual will, would have 
broken in upon tke idea of universal subjection. The 
master of Egypt must look upon no forms that do not 
speak submission. 

And yet there is an air of serenity (though it be not 
such as springs from the consciousness of personal dig- 
nity) tending towards gaiety, in most of these sculptures : 
the look indeed is altogether servile ; yet it is unrepining, 
and it seems to express entire acquiescence in that im- 
mutable order of things which tra,nsferred the rights of 
all to one. 

That such a condition of the social system as this 
actually existed in the times when the Egyptian temples 
were reared, must not be positively affirmed, merely on 
the grounds above mentioned; but if, amidst the ill- 
founded encomiums bestowed upon the Egyptian insti- 
tutions by ancient historians, there may clearly be traced 
the indications of a state of unexampled subjection to 
fixed modes of action in the social, the religious, and the 
political systems of the people, the existing monuments 
of their architecture and sculpture are to be acknow- 
ledged as according well with these indications. Yet if 
this accordance were thought to be fanciful, let it be 
attempted to associate our notions of the Grecian people, 
and their institutions, with the Egyptian architecture 
and sculpture. — It would be impossible to combine ideas 
so incongruous. 



INDEPENDENT EVIDENCE, 155 

The Grecian arcliitecture, altliougli its elements were 
evidently derived from that of Egypt, is contrasted with 
it in almost every point. The people to whom these 
comparatively diminutive, and jet faultless structures 
belonged, manifestly, were not masters of boundless 
national wealth ; but their intelligence so much ex- 
ceeded their resources that they at once reached the 
highest point of art, which is to induce upon its materials 
a new value — a value so great, that the mere cost of the 
work is forgotten. In surveying the Egyptian temples 
we wonder at the wealth that could suffice to pay for 
them ; in viewing those of Greece we only admire the 
genius of the architect who imagined them, and the 
taste of the people who admired them. 

The plains of Greece are burdened by no huge monu- 
ments, the only intention of which is to crush the 
common feelings of a nation beneath the weight ot 
one man's vanity ; but its surface was thick set with 
temples which were the property of all — temples, free 
from gloom, and unstained with cruel rites. 

A more striking point of contrast cannot be selected 
than that presented by a comparison of the human 
figures (above-mentioned) that are attached to the 
Egyptian temples, with those that decorate the Grecian 
architecture. The Grecian caryatides assume the atti- 
tude of as much liberty, ease, and variety of position as 
may comport with the burdensome duty of supporting 
the pediment : they give their heads to the mass of 
masonry above them — not with the passiveness of 
slaves, but as if with the alacrity of free persons. The 



156 SOURCES OF 

Egyptian figures stand like the personifications of un- 
clianging duration ; but as to the Grecian caryatides, one 
might think that they had but just stepped up from the 
merry crowd, and were themselves the pleased spectators 
of the festivities that are passing before them. 

The Eoman architecture, as compared with that of 
India or of China, is only so far less barbarous, as it is 
more Grecian. In the arts the Eomans were imitators, 
and they are hardly ever to be admired when they 
wandered from their pattern. Those structures in which 
they might best claim the praise of originality — namely 
— their vast amphitheatres, are rather monuments of 
wealth, luxury, and native ferocity of character, than of 
taste or intelligence. 

The structures which shed the greatest lustre upon 
the Eoman name, are those public works — roads, bridges, 
and aqueducts, which, in almost every country of Europe, 
mark the presence of their legions ; and these attest that 
vigour of character — that unconquerable perseverance — 
that regard to utility, and especially, that steady pursuit 
of universal empire, which history declares to have 
characterised the Eoman people and government. 

The student of history, although he may not have 
access to museums, and although costly antiquarian 
publications should never come into his possession, may 
find, even in his seclusion, some visible and palpable 
proofs of the authenticity of the Eoman historians ; for 
the circuit of a few miles in many districts of the British 
Islands, will ofier illustrations of the narratives of Caesar, 
of Tacitus, and of Suetonius. Though the occupation of 



INDEPENDENT EVIDENCE. 157 

Britain by the Romans was of shorter continuance than 
that of almost any other country — included within the 
empire, and though their possession of the island was 
always partial and disturbed, they yet made themselves 
so much at home with our ancestors as that our soil 
teems with the relics of their sojourn of three hundred 
years. Roman camps, roads, walls, and baths ; — mosaics, 
vases, weapons, utensils, and coins, are as abundant, 
almost, in England as in Italy; and they are quite 
abundant enough to substantiate the proud glories that 
are claimed for the Roman arms by their historians. 

If then there were room to entertain a doubt of the 
authenticity of the body of ancient history — taken in the 
mass ; or if the credibility of a single author comes to be 
questioned ; or if a particular fact be opened to contro- 
versy, it is far from being the case that we are left 
to rely, alone, upon the validity of general arguments 
in proof of the apparent competency, veracity, and im- 
partiality of the ancient historians ; on the contrary, we 
may, in almost all cases, appeal to unquestioned facts, 
supporting the affirmative side of such questions. For 
instance, we may compare the testimony of the histo- 
rians themselves — one with another; or with that of 
contemporary writers in other departments of literature, 
whose allusions to public events or persons are of an 
incidental kind ; or we may compare the descriptions 
that are given by historians of natural objects, or of 
national peculiarities, with the same objects or peculi- 
arities — still existing; or, to take a method still more 
precise, and still more palpably certain, we may read 



158 SOURCES OP 

upon tlie face of marble, or brass^ or gold, or silver, or 
precious stones — long buried in ttie earth, explicit 
records of the very events, or memorials of the very 
persons, mentioned by historians. Or we may examine 
the remains of public works and buildings, described by 
historians, and find them accordant with their accounts 
of the power, tastes, and habits of the people that 
reared them. 

Notwithstanding all these means of proof, various as 
they are, there may yet remain some points of history 
that are not satisfactorily attested, or that are liable to 
reasonable suspicion ; yet as to the great mass of facts, 
these will be found to be so fully established as to render 
scepticism regarding them altogether absurd. 

But now the proof which establishes the general au- 
thenticity of ancient historians, and which demonstrates 
that their writings are, in the main, what they profess to 
be — that is — genuine narratives of events, composed 
and published in the age to which they are usually 
assigned, carries with it, by implication, a proof of the 
genuineness of other remains of ancient literature. If, 
for example, we have under our touch, palpable evidence 
that the works of Tacitus are genuine and authentic, we 
can no longer deny that the raft on which ancient books 
floated down through so many ages was substantially 
secure ; and we may safely conclude that whatever mists 
may seem to hang over some parts of the channel of 
transmission, the vessel and its cargo did actually pass, 
undamaged, through the gloom of ages. 

Though this inference may be applicable to the 



INDEPENDENT EVIDENCE. 159 

remains of ancient literature more in the mass, than in 
detail ; it nevertheless possesses a conclusive force when 
brought to bear upon vague and sweeping attacks upon 
the genuineness and integrity of ancient writings, as if 
they were incapable of any certain proof. Those who 
profess to entertain doubts of this sort, do not ordinarily 
apply themselves with care to the examination of any 
one instance, nor attempt patiently to refute particular 
proofs ; but rather they fling about broad assertions, 
tending to destroy all confidence in the process and 
medium through which the records of antiquity have 
been conveyed to modern times. Now to such vague 
insinuations, a full and sufficient reply is given, when we 
adduce demonstrative proof of the authenticity of histo- 
rical works which could not have contained consistent 
and circumstantial truth unless they had actually been 
written in the age to which they are attributed. If 
then some books have descended — entire, through eigh- 
teen or twenty centuries, others may have done so ; 
and if so, then no objection can be maintained against 
ancient books, a priori ; nor can any suspicion rest upon 
particular works — except such as may be justified by 
specific proofs of spuriousness. 



CHAPTEE XIIL 

GENERAL PEINCIPLES, APPLICABLE TO QUESTIONS OF 
THE GENUINENESS AND AUTHENTICITY OF ANCIENT 
RECORDS. 

Civilization lias not ordinarily, if indeed it has ever 
done so, sprung up spontaneously in any land. A germ 
of tlie arts, and of literature, transmitted from people to 
people, and passed down from age to age, lias taken 
root and become prolific, in a degree, proportioned 
generally to the amount and variety of those elements 
of social and intellectual improvement that may have 
been received from distant sources. 

These germs of civilization may have been trans- 
ported, and scattered by colonization, by trade, or by 
conquest ; but they are never so fully expanded as when 
they are cherished by an imported literature. It is not 
by comparing themselves with themselves, that indi- 
viduals, or that nations, become wise ; and though there 
are fruits of genius which seem to owe nothing to ex- 
traneous sources, the general perfectionment of reason 
and of taste can be attained only by an extended know- 
ledge of what has been thought and performed by men 
of other nations, and of other times. 



GENERAL PRINCIPLES, ETC. 161 

Among all the inestimable advantages which have 
raised the inhabitants of England and of France and of 
Germany, above those of Turkey or of China, very few 

can be named that have not — directly or indirectly 

sprung from, a knowledge of the civilisation, the arts, 
and the literature of ancient nations. What is it that 
would be left to the people of Europe, if all this know- 
ledge, and all its remote consequences, could at once be 
subtracted from their religious, their political, and their 
intellectual condition ? But it must be remembered that 
it has chiefly been by the transmission of hooks, from age 
to age, that this yeast of civilisation is now possessed and 
enjoyed. If those works which we believe to be genuine 
are not so in fact, we may be said to hold all the 
blessings of social and intellectual advancement by a 
forged title. For on such a supposition the first stock, 
or the rudiment of our advantages has sprung from a 
mass of fabrications. No one entertains such a suppo- 
sition; and yet it must be admitted if any general 
objections are to be allowed to disparage the mode in 
which ancient literature has been transmitted to modern 
times. 

If we except the almost forgotten enterprise of the 
Jesuit, Harduin, no such general objections are ever 
formally made, or insinuated, in relation to the remains 
of classic literature, and this for two reasons ;— first, 
because an attem-pt to support a sceptical doctrine of 
this sort would be treated by the learned with contempt, 
as proceeding from a whimsical love of paradox, or 
from an inane ambition to attract attention; and 

M 



162 GENERAL PEINCIPLES 

secondly, because tlie unlearned could never be induced 
to take so mucb interest in a controversy of this kind, 
as miglit reward tlie pains of tliose who attempted to 
delude them. 

- But it is otherwise in relation to the Holy Scriptures ; 
for while some few of the learned are, from sinister 
motives, willing to aid an attempt to bring the authority 
of these books into suspicion, there are always thousands 
of the community who may easily be engaged to listen 
to objectors, and who, from their want of information, 
and their incapacity to reason correctly, are easily made 
the dupes of any plausible sophistry. 

Nor is it merely the uneducated classes that are 
exposed to the artifices of sophists ; for persons whose 
acquirements in general literature are respectable, seem 
sometimes to be perplexed by objections of a kind 
which, if levelled at the remains of classic authors, they 
would deem undeserving of any serious regard. 

This strange, and often fatal inconsistency, may 
sometimes arise from the influence of moral causes, 
which it does not fall within the design of this volume 
to notice; but it is often attributable to a want of 
attention to some common principles of evidence which, 
though they are so obvious that it may seem almost 
frivolous to insist upon them, are never respected by 
objectors, and are seldom remembered by the victims of 
sophistry. The most prominent of these principles may 
be classed under the five following heads. 

I. Facts remote from our personal observation may 
be as certainly proved by evidence that is fallible in its 



OF HISTORIC EVIDENCE. 163 

kind^ as by that whicli is not open to the possibility of 
error. 

By certain proof is here meant, not merely such as 
may be presented to the senses, or such as cannot be 
rendered obscure, even for a moment, by a perverse 
disputant; — but such as when once understood^ leaves 
no room for doubt in a sound mind. And this degree of 
certainty is every day obtained, in the common occasions 
of life, by means of evidence that is fallible in its 
nature, and which may be questionable in all its parts, 
separately considered. Let us take such an instance as 
this. — A person receives letters from several of his 
friends in a neighbouring town, informing him that an 
extensive fire has happened the night before, in that 
place, in consequence of which many of the inhabitants 
have been driven from their homes : — presently after- 
wards, a crowd of the sufferers, bringing with them the 
few remains of their furniture, passes his door: — his 
friends arrive among them, and ask shelter for their 
families;-— the next day the papers contain a full de- 
scription of the calamity. Does this person entertain 
any doubt as to the alleged fact ? He cannot do so ; and 
yet he admits that human testimony is fallacious : — he 
knows that men lie much oftener, than that towns are 
burned down: — perhaps there is not one of all those 
who have reported the fact whose veracity ought to be 
considered as absolutely unimpeachable ; — some of them 
deserve no confidence : — and as for the public prints, 
they every day admit narratives that are altogether 
unfounded. ' 

m2 



164 GENERAL PEINCIPLES ^ 

Scepticism of this sort, on sucli an occasion, if it 
be snpposable, could only arise from a degree of men- 
tal perversity, not mncli differing from insanity. In 
other words, this amount of evidence is such as leaves 
absolutely no room for doubt in a sound mind ; never- 
theless, the material of which it is composed — if we 
may so speak — is in itself fallible, and as to all the parts 
of it, if s&parately taken, they might be rejected. 

Or we may take an example or two of another 
kind. — It has been long affirmed by voyagers, and on 
their authority it has been assumed as certain by the 
compilers of geographical works, and by the framers of 
charts, that, midway in the Pacific Ocean^ there are 
several groups of inhabited islands. And the people of 
England, generally, think these affirmations as certain, 
as that two and two are four. And yet who does not 
know that voyagers are too fond of bringing home tales, 
invented to amuse the weariness of a long voyage, and 
published to win the wonder of the vulgar, or to turn 
a penny ? Now it may be imagined that some question 
of national importance — some argument for the remission 
of taxes — depended upon proving that such islands do 
not exist; and then let it be supposed that certain 
interested disputants are permitted to win the ear of 
the common people, and to keep it to themselves : in 
such a case the proof of this fact — certain as it is, might 
easily be made to appear very questionable, or to be 
altogether unworthy of belief — in a word, a trick of the 
Government, contrived to wring money from the people ! 

Or again: — It has been affirmed by historians that 



OF HISTORIC EVIDENCE. 165 

some two liundred years ago the Parliament of England 
quarrelled with their king — levied war against him 
— vanquished, and beheaded him, and set up a 
republican form of government, in the place of the 
monarchy. But in proof of facts so improbable as 
these we have no better evidence than the testimony 
of prejudiced political writers : the whole story rests on 
the credit of old books or manuscripts ; nor is there 
one of the writers who have repeated the narrative that 
may not be convicted of some misrepresentation; and 
some of them are plainly chargeable wdth many direct 
and wilful untruths. Notwithstanding this array of 
objections, yet the principal events of the civil war are, 
in the estimation of all persons of sound mind, as 
certainly established as any mathematical proposition. 
The same may be said of innumerable facts — much 
more remote, or apparently obscure, than those above 
mentioned ; and yet they are so proved, that they can- 
not be questioned without doing violence to common 
sense. 

The difference between the proof obtained by mathe- 
matical demonstration, and that which results from an 
accumulation of oral or written testimony, is not — that 
the latter must always, and from its nature, be less 
certain than the former ; but that the certainty of the 
former may be exhibited more readily, and by a simpler 
and more compact process, than that of the other. If 
it were denied that the three angles of every triangle are 
equal to two right angles, an actual measurement of 
lines, or the placing of two pieces of card one over the 



166 GENERAL PEINCIPLES 

other, would end the dispute in a moment : or even if 
the problem were of a more complicated kind, belonging 
to the higher branches of mathematical science, and 
therefore if it were such as could not be made plain to 
an uninstructed person, by any means, or to any one by 
a very brief process, yet whoever will choose to bestow 
time enough and is capable of giving attention enough 
to the demonstration, will not fail, at length, to be 
convinced of its truth; for all the parts of which it 
consists are certain, and their connexion, one with 
another, is also certain. But the certainty that is ob- 
tained from a mass of testimony, oral or written, does 
not result from the solidity of the separate parts, or the 
firmness of the cement which connects them ; but from 
the irresistible pressure of the multifarious mass. The 
strength of mathematical demonstration is like that of 
a pier ; — the strength of accumulated testimony is like 
that of the swelling ocean when its tides are mantling 
upon the shore. 

II. Facts, remote from our personal knowledge, are 
not necessarily more or less certain in proportion to the 
length of time that has elapsed since they took place. 

An illusion of the imagination, taking its rise, 
naturally, from the indistinctness of our individual 
recollections of infancy, and from the entire obliteration 
of many of the records of memory, leads us, involun- 
tarily, to attach an idea of obscurity, and of uncertainty, 
to whatever is remote in time. And besides ; if the 
knowledge of remote facts has been imperfectly, or 
suspiciously, transmitted, and if there be a want of 



OF HISTORIC EVIDENCE. 167 

direct evidence on any point of ancient history, then 
tlie distance of time does really decrease the chances of 
collecting any uqw evidence; and therefore such facts 
must always be shrouded in uncertainty. 

But whatever has been well and sufficiently proved 
in one age, remains not less certainly proved in the 
next, so long as all the evidences continue in the 
same state. Indeed — as we have before remarked, his- 
torical evidence often greatly increases in clearness and 
certainty by the lapse of time. If in the time of Leo 
X. it was certain that Augustus ruled the Eoman world 
sixteen hundred years before that period, we have no 
need to deduct anything from our persuasion of the 
truth of the fact, on account of the four centuries which 
have since elapsed. On the contrary, the proof of it 
has become much greater, both in its amount, and in its 
clearness, now, than it was then. 

The proof of the genuineness of books, even if it 
should not gather particles of evidence, yet remains, 
from age to age, unimpaired. Nor is the proof of the 
genuineness of modern works more satisfactory, although 
it may be more abundant, than that of ancient books. 
We could not be persuaded that the Paradise Lost was 
written in the last century by some obscure scribbler ; 
nor would it be a whit less absurd to suppose that the 
^neid was composed in the tenth century, or the Iliad 
at any time subsequent to the invasion of Greece by 
Xerxes. 

The degree of certainty that is attainable on any 
point of ancient history, or literature, is rgulated — not 



168 . GENERAL PRINCIPLES 

by distance of time, "but "by the state of the world at 
the period in question ; especially by the contraction, or 
the diffusion of general knowledge at that time. This 
certainty therefore rises and falls — it becomes bright or 
obscure, alternately, from age to age, and it does so quite 
irrespectively of distance of years. In sailing up the 
stream of time, mists and darkness rest upon the land- 
scape at a comparatively early stage of our progress ; 
but as we ascend, light breaks upon the scene in the 
full splendour of a noonday sun: scarcely an object 
rests in obscurity, and whatever is most prominent and 
important, may be discerned in its minutest parts. 

III. The validity of evidence in proof of remote 
facts is not affected, either for the better or the worse, 
by the weight of the consequences that may happen to 
depend upon them. 

No principle can be much more obviously true than 
this ; and if the reader chooses to call it a truism, he 
is welcome to do so: and yet none is more often dis- 
regarded. With the same sort of inconsistency which 
impels us to measure the punishment of an offence — not 
by its turpitude, but by the amount of injury it 
may have occasioned, we are instinctively inclined to 
think the most slender evidence good enough in proof of 
a point which is of no importance; while we distrust 
the best evidence as if it were feeble, on any occasion 
when the fact in question involves great and pressing 
interests. We are apt to think of evidence as if it were 
a cord or a wire, which, though it may sustain a certain 
weight, must needs snap with a greater. And yet the 



OF HISTORIC EVIDENCE. 169 

slightest reflection will dissipate a prejudice that is so 
groundless and absurd. 

It is very true that the degree of care, of diligence, 
and of attention, with which we examine evidence, may 
well be proportioned to the importance of the con- 
sequences that are involved in the decision. A jury- 
man ought indeed to give his utmost attention to 
testimony that may sentence a prisoner to a month's 
confinement ; but if he be open to the common feelings 
of humanity, he will exercise a tenfold caution when 
life or death is to be the issue of his verdict. This is 
very proper ; but no one who is capable of reasoning 
justly would think that, if the proof of guilt in the 
former case has been thoroughly examined, and is quite 
conclusive, it can become a jot less convincing, if it 
should be found that some new interpretation of the law 
makes the offence capital. 

The genuineness of the satires and epistles of Horace 
is allowed by all scholars to be unquestionable ; and any 
one who has examined the evidence in this instance, 
must call him a mere sophist who should attempt to 
raise a controversy on the subject. Would the case be 
otherwise than it is, even though the proof of the 
genuineness of these writings should overthrow the 
British constitution; or should make it the duty of 
every man to resign his property to his servant ? 

The evidence of the genuineness and authenticity 
of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures has, for no other 
reason than a thought of the consequences that are in- 
volved in an admission of their truth, been treated with 



170. GENERAL PEINCIPLES 

an unwarrantable disregard of logical equity — and even 
of the dictates of common sense. The poems of Ana- 
creon, the tragedies of Sophocles, the plays of Terence, 
the epistles of Pliny, are adjudged to be safe from the 
imputation of spuriousness, or of material corruption ; 
and yet evidence ten times greater as to its quantity, 
variety, and force, supports the genuineness of the poems 
of Isaiah, and the epistles of Paul. 

This violation of argumentative equity, in relation to 
the Scriptures, has been favoured by the mere circum- 
stance of their having to be so continually defended. It 
matters little how impudently false an imputation may 
be ; the reply, though, in the most absolute sense, con- 
clusive, is apt to beget almost as much suspicion as 
it dissipates. Herein consists the strength of infidel 
writings ; — they call for a defence of that which is 
attacked, and this defence seems to imply that there 
is a question which may fairly be argued, and that it 
is in some degree doubtful. Let the genuineness of the 
most indubitable of the classics be boldly questioned 
in a popular style, and let it be defended in a form 
level to the mode of attack — and level also to the 
ignorance of the middle and lower orders, and the 
result would produce quite as many cases of doubt, as 
of conviction. 

What course ought to be pursued, or which alter- 
native should be adopted, if a case should arise wherein 
evidence, intrinsically good, seems to support a narra- 
tive that is palpably incredible, and contradictory to 
common sense, is a question that may well be left 



OF HISTORIC EVIDENCE. 171 

undecided until sucli a case actually presents itself. No 
such incongruity weighs against our acceptance of the 
Jewish and Christian Scriptures ; for the miracles they 
report, wrought for purposes so wise and benign, accord 
with every notion we can antecedently form of the 
Divine character and government. 

IV. A calculation of actual instances, taken from 
almost any class of facts, will prove that a mass of 
evidence which carries the convictions of sound minds, 
is incomparably more often true than false. 

Evidence may be spoken of as good if it be such that, 
after an ordinary amount of examination, it does not 
appear to be liable to suspicion. However much of 
falsification and of error there may be in the world, 
there is yet so great a predominance of truth, that any 
one who believes indiscriminately will be in the right a 
thousand times to one, oftener, than any one who doubts 
indiscriminately. Habitual scepticism will render a 
man the victim of almost perpetual error. Indeed, 
either to believe by habit, or to doubt by habit, must be 
regarded as the symptom of a feeble or diseased mind. 
And yet the former is vastly more congruous to the 
actual condition of mankind, and to the ordinary course 
of human affairs, and is more safe, and is more reason- 
able, than the latter. 

No man, unless his mind is verging towards insanity, 
acts in the daily occasions of common life on the prin- 
ciples of scepticism ; for with such a rule of action in his 
head, he must retreat from human society, and take 
up his abode in a cavern. Not only is the sceptic an 



172 GENEEAL PRINCIPLES 

anomalous "being among liis fellows, but liis scepticism 
itself is an anomaly in his own ordinary conduct ; it is 
an insanity on single points, wliich of all kinds is tlie 
least hopeful of cure. 

Adherence to truth is an element of human nature, 
just as is the love of kindred : and although the opera- 
tion of both principles is liable to interruption, such 
deviations from the impulses of nature must always be 
held to arise from the influence of some specific induce- 
ment. Wilful, difficult, and hazardous falsifications, 
prompted by no assignable motive of interest or ambi- 
tion, if indeed such are ever attempted, need not be 
included in a calculation of probabilities. If, therefore, 
in listening to a professed narrative of facts, we have 
reason to feel secure against the ordinary motives of 
deliberate falsehood ; and if, on the contrary, the veracity 
of the narrator is guaranteed by the circumstances in 
which he is placed ; if, moreover, his testimony is con- 
firmed by a measure of independent evidence ; and if it 
is uncontradicted by testimony of equal value ; and if 
the whole case has been again and again scrupulously 
examined by persons of every cast of mind — then, and 
in such a case, if indeed a remaining possibility of 
delusion exists^ it is so incalculably small_, that to take 
it up in preference to the positive evidence, must be ac- 
counted an infatuation arising from folly or perversity. 

Let then the rule above mentioned be applied to 
the existing remains of ancient literature. Among the 
works that were brought to light and printed in the 
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, there were not a few — 



OF HISTORIC EVIDENCE. 173 

though few in comparison with the whole — which were 
very soon discovered to be spnrions productions — imita- 
tions of the style of ancient authors. Although at first 
sight they seemed to possess a claim to genuineness, 
they were soon found to be destitute of that external 
evidence which may be collected from the quotations of 
subsequent writers ; or there was a manifest failure in 
the attempted imitation of style; or there were over- 
sights, in phrases or allusions, such as served fully to 
expose the deception. All these cases stand excluded, 
therefore, from the intention of our proposition ; for they 
do not possess evidence of authenticity that could be 
spoken of as seemingly good. 

Besides works obviously spurious, there were a few 
of which the claim to genuineness was good enough to 
justify controversy, and which yet find a few advocates 
among scholars ; although the majority of critics has 
returned a verdict against them. Now these doubtful 
works, inasmuch as their genuineness is not generally 
acknowledged, may also be excluded from our proposi- 
tion ; for the evidence in their favour can barely be 
called — seemingly good. 

Now after exclusions of this kind have been made, no 
one acquainted with the evidence that supports the 
genuineness of the unquestioned portion of ancient lite- 
rature, and who has given attention to the controversies 
which have been carried on relative to doubtful works, 
and who is aware of the assiduity, the acuteness, the 
learning, the eager pertinacity of research, that have 
been brought to bear upon such questions, will affirm 



174 GENERAL PEINCIPLES 

that there are ancient works, generally supposed by 
scliolars to be genuine, whicli are in fact spurious. 
Every one wlio is competent to form an opinion on the 
subject grants, that even if there be a chance that a fev/ 
of the classic authors, the genuineness of which has 
never been doubted, are after all spurious, such a chance 
is incalculably small — it is so small, as to leave nothing 
but paradoxes and absurdities in the hands of those who, 
on such ground, should attempt to bring them under 
suspicion. 

V. The strength of evidence is not proportioned to its 
simplicity, or to the ease with which it may be appre- 
hended by all persons ; on the contrary, the most con- 
clusive kind of proof is often that which is the most 
intricate and complicated. 

In the mathematical sciences there are many proposi- 
tions, so simple and so readily demonstrated, that all to 
whom they are explained may be supposed to carry 
away an equally clear apprehension of their truth ; but 
the higher departments of these sciences abound with 
theorems which, though not in any degree less certain 
than the simplest axioms, are shown to be true by 
means of a process which may require hours, or even 
days to work it out. Among those who actually attend 
to all the parts of such a process, there will be wide 
differences in the kind and degree of conviction that 
is obtained of the truth of such propositions. Some, 
though they may firmly believe the demonstration to be 
perfect, as well because they have examined — one by 
one — the links of which it consists, as because they know 



OF HISTORIC EVIDENCE. 175 

it Is assented to hj calculators more competent than 
themselves, are yet nnable, either from the want of habit, 
or of capacity, to coTnprehend the method of proof ; or to 
perceive distinctly the connexion of the parts, and the 
real oneness of the whole. They have walked in the 
dark over the ground — groping their way from step 
to step J — they are satisfied that they have arrived, by 
a right path, at a certain point, though they cannot 
survey the route. 

But another calculator, long practised in the refined 
modes of abstract reasoning — expert in leaping with 
certainty over intervals which others must slowly pace, 
and capable, by the vigour and comprehension of his 
mind, of retaining his hold of a multitude of particulars, 
sees the certainty of such operose demonstrations with 
as much ease as another finds in comprehending an 
elementary proposition. Yet the conclusion which per- 
haps not fifty men in Europe can, with full intelligence, 
know to be true, is actually as true as the axiom which 
the schoolboy comprehends at a glance. 

Now all evidence on questions of antiquity, whether 
the facts be historical or literary, thus far resembles an 
operose demonstration in mathematical science, that it is 
remote from the intellectual habits, and extraneous to 
the usual acquirements, even of well-educated persons : 
very far remote, therefore, must it be from the mental 
range of the uninstructed classes. The strength of our 
convictions, as to matters of fact, remote in time or place, 
mitst bear proportion to the extent and the exactness of 
our know^ledge, and to the consequent fulness and vivid- 



176 GENERAL PEINCIPLES, ETC. 

ness of our conceptions of tliat class of objects to which 
the question relates. By long and intimate familiarity 
with ancient authors, and by an extensive acquaintance 
with the relics of antiquity, of all kinds, the imagination 
of the scholar bears him back to distant ages, with a full 
and distinct consciousness of the reality of those scenes 
and persons. Nor is this ideal converse with remote 
objects like that which is produced by fictitious narra- 
tives ; for such excursions of the fancy through unreal 
regions, are disconnected with the rest of our ideas and 
convictions : on the contrary, the ideal presence of an 
accomplished mind in the scenes of ancient history is 
firmly, and by innumerable ties, combined with the 
knowledge of present realities. The imagination does 
not flit, on the wing of a fantasy, from the real, to an 
unreal world ; but it tracks its way, with a steady step, 
on solid ground, from times present, to times past ; and 
the intelligent conviction of truth travels up to the 
farthest point of its progress. 

To those who are thus conversant with history, all 
facts or events — literary or historical — if they be satis- 
factorily attested, are held in the mind with a firmness 
of persuasion which cannot, by any statements, or any 
reasonings, however conclusive or perspicuous, be im- 
parted to other minds ; because, neither its own powers 
of comprehension, nor its variety of knowledge, can be 
so imparted. 



CHAPTEE XIV. 

EELATIVE STRENGTH OF THE EVIDENCE WHICH SUP- 
POETS THE GENUINENESS AND AUTHENTICITY OF 
THE HOLY SCRIPTUEES. 

Some copies of Quintilian's Institutions of Oratory, 
very mncli corrupted and mutilated by the ignorance or 
presumption of copyists, were known in Italy before 
the fifteenth century. But in 1414, while the Council 
of Constance was sitting, Poggio, a learned Italian, was 
commissioned by the promoters of learning to proceed to 
that place, in search of ancient manuscripts, which were 
believed to be preserved in the monasteries of the city and 
its vicinity. His researches were rewarded by discover- 
ing, in the monastery of St. Gall, beneath a heap of long- 
neglected lumber, a perfect copy of the Institutions. 

The manuscript, thus discovered, was soon subjected 
to the examination of critics; it was collated with 
existing copies, it was compared with the references of 
ancient authors, and thus was ascertained to be genuine, 
and, in the main, uncorrupted. And yet the substance 
of the evidence on which this decision rests might be 
comprised in a page. 

The abridged history of Eome, by Paterculus, has 
N 



178 RELATIVE STRENGTH 

come down to our times only in a single mamiscriptj 
and that one is so mucli corrupted, that critics have 
despaired of restoring the text to its puritj. It happens, 
also, that this history is quoted by one ancient author 
only — Priscian, a grammarian of the sixth century. 
Yet, notwithstanding this scantiness of the evidence, 
and this corruption of the single existing copy, the 
genuineness of the work is fully admitted by scholars. 
The style, the allusions, the coincidences, are such 
as to satisfy those who are competent to estimate the 
value of this sort of proof. But now if this proof were 
formally set before ns, and even if it were as much 
expanded as it would bear, it must look exceedingly 
meagre ; and, to uninformed readers, it must appear 
slender as a thread, and insufficient to sustain any 
weighty consequence. But scholars, in reading the 
book, feel that sort of conviction of its genuineness 
which is experienced by a traveller, who has spent his 
life in passing from country to country, conversing with 
men of all nations : when this travelled person meets 
foreigners in the streets of London, he does not need to 
look at passports before he can know whether these 
strangers, whom individually he has never before seen, 
are Swedes, or Hungarians, or Armenians, or Hindoos, 
or West Indians ; the commonest observer scarcely 
hesitates on such occasions ; but the old traveller feels 
a conviction which mocks at the demand for formal 
proof. 

After we have excepted a few doubtful cases, the 
genuineness of classic authors is perceived by scholars, 



OF THE BIBLICAL EVIDENCE. 179 

with a vividness and distinctness that is not dependent 
upon the quantity of assignable evidence which must 
be adduced in reply to objectors. On this ground it 
may be affirmed, that, if only a single manuscript, con- 
taining certain of St. Paul's Epistles, had been pre- 
served, and even if no quotations from these writino-g 
were to be found, competent scholars (no practical con- 
sequences being implied in the question) would doubt 
that these writings are in fact what they profess to be. 
Those minute and indescribable characters of genuine- 
ness which meet the instructed eye in every line of 
these Epistles would be enough, apart from that argu- 
ment which has been derived from the internal accord- 
ances of the history and the letters, as exhibited by 
Paley in the Hor^ Paulinge. 

But although the external proof of the genuineness 
of ancient books might, in a large proportion of 
instances, be dispensed with as superfluous, it ought 
not to be disregarded ; especially as it is the kind of 
evidence which may best be made intelligible to 
general readers. Yet even this, when adduced in its 
particulars, is not often duly appreciated; nor is it 
likely to produce its due impression, unless it be viewed 
in its place among facts of the same class. We propose, 
therefore, without troubling the reader with details 
which are to be found, at large, in many well-known 
works, and which he may be supposed to have in recol- 
lection—or within his reach— to direct him to a few 
principal points of the comparison which may be 
instituted between the classical and the sacred writing's, 



n2 



180 RELATIVE STRENGTH 

in relation to the proof of the genuineness and anthen- 
ticitj of each kind. 

The Jewish and Christian Scriptures may then be 
brought into comparison with the works of the Greek 
and Roman authors, in the following particulars : — 

1. The number of manuscripts which passed down 
through the middle ages, in the modes which have been 
described in the preceding chapters. 

About fifteen manuscripts of the history of Hero- 
dotus are known to critics: and of these, several are 
not of higher antiquity than the middle of the fifteenth 
century. 'One copy, in the French king's library (there 
are in that collection five or six), appears to belong to 
the twelfth century ; there is one in the Vatican, and 
one in the Florentine library, attributed to the tenth 
centuiy : one in the library of Emmanuel College, Cam- 
bridge, formerly the property of Archbishop Sancroft, 
which is believed to be very ancient : the libraries of 
Oxford and of Vienna contain also manuscripts of this 
author. This amount of copies may be taken as more 
than the average number of ancient manuscripts of the 
classic authors ; for although a few have many more, 
many have fewer. 

To mention any number as that of the existing 
ancient manuscripts, either of the Hebrew or Greek 
Scriptm-es, would be difficult. It may suffice to say 
that, on the revival of learning, copies of the Scriptures, 
in whole or in part, were found wherever any books had 
been preserved. In. examining the catalogues of con- 
ventual libraries — such as they were in the fifteenth 



OF THE BIBLICAL EVIDENCE. 181 

century, the larger proportion is usually found to con- 
sist of the works of the fathers, or of the ecclesiastical 
writers of the middle ages ; next in amount are the 
Scriptures — sometimes entire ; more often the Gospels, 
the Acts, the Epistles, or the Psalms, separately ; and 
last and fewest are the classics, of which, seldom more 
than three or four, are found in a list of one or two 
hundred volumes. The number of ancient manuscripts 
of the Greek New Testament, or parts of it, which 
hitherto have been examined by editors, is nearly five 
hundred. 

If in the case of a classic author, twenty manuscripts, 
or even five, are deemed amply sufficient (and sometimes 
one, as we have seen, is relied upon), it is evident that 
many hundreds are redundant for the purposes of argu- 
ment. The importance of so great a number of copies 
consists in the amplitude of the means which are thereby 
afforded of restoring the text to its pristine purity ; for 
the various readings collected from so many sources, 
if they do not always place the true reading beyond 
doubt, afford an absolute security against extensive 
corruptions. 

2. The high antiquity of some existing manuscripts. 

A Virgil (already mentioned) in the Vatican, claims 
an antiquity as high as the fourth century : there are a 
few similar instances ; but generally the existing copies 
of the classics are attributed to periods between the 
tenth and fifteenth centuries. In this respect the Scrip- 
tures are by no means inferior to the classics. There 
are extant copies of the Pentateuch, which, on no slight 



182 RELATIVE STRENaTH 

grounds, are supposed to have been written in the 
second, or the third centmy : and there are copies of 
the Gospels belonging to the third, or the fourth, and 
several of the entire New Testament, which unques- 
tionably were made before the eighth. But the actual 
age of existing manuscripts is a matter of more curiosity 
than importance ; since proof of another kind carries 
us with certainty some way beyond the date of any 
existing parchments. 

3. The extent of surface over v/hich copies were 
diffused, at an early date. 

The works of the most celebrated of the Greek 
authors always found a place in the libraries of opulent 
persons, in all parts of Greece, and in many of the 
colonies, soon after their first publication ; and a century 
or two later they were read, wherever the language 
was spoken. But a contraction of this sphere of dif- 
fusion took place at the time when the eastern empire 
was being driven in upon its centre ; and during a long 
period these vforks were found only in the countries 
and islands within a short distance of Constantinople. 
As for the Latin classics, how widely soever they might 
have been diffused during three or four centuries, the 
incursions of the northern nations, and the consequent 
decline of learning in the West, went near to produce 
their utter annihilation. Many of these authors w^ere 
actually lost sight of during several centuries. 

It is a matter of unquestioned history that the Jews, 
always carrying with them their books, had spread 
themselves throughout most cour'^ries of Asia, of 



OF THE BIBLICAL EVIDENCE. 183 

southern Europe, and of northern Africa, before the 
commencement of the Christian era; nor is it less 
certain that, wherever Judaism existed, Christianity 
rapidly followed it. Carried forward by their own 
zeal, or driven on by persecutions, the Christian teachers 
of the first and second centuries passed beyond the 
limits of the Eoman empire, and founded churches 
among nations that were scarcely known to the masters 
of the world. Nor were the Christian Scriptures merely 
carried to great distances in different directions ; — they 
were scattered through the mass of society, in every 
nation, to an extent greatly exceeding the ordinary 
circulation of books in those ages : these books- were 
not in the hands of the opulent, and of the studious 
merely; for they were possessed by innumerable indi- 
viduals, who, with an ardour beyond the range of 
secular motives, valued, preserved, and reproduced them. 
And while many copies were hoarded and hidden by 
private persons, others were the property of societies, 
and, by continual repetition in public, the contents 
of them were imprinted on the memories of their 
members. 

The wide, and— if the expression may be used — the 
deep circulation of the Scriptures, preserved them, not 
merely from extinction, but, to a great extent, from 
corruption also. These books were at no time included 
within the sphere of any one centre of power — civil or 
ecclesiastical. They were secreted, and they were ex- 
panded far beyond the utmost reach of tyranny or of 
fraud. 



184 RELATIVE STRENGTH 

4. The importance attached to the books by their 
possessors. 

In a certain sense, the religion of the Greeks and 
Bomans was embodied in the works of their poets ; 
but the religious fervour of the people had never linked 
itself with those works, as if they were the depositories 
of their faith : books were the possession of the opulent 
and the educated classes ; — the^^ were prized by the few 
as the means of intellectual enjoyment. But Judaism 
first, and Christianity not less, were religions of histo- 
rical fact : the doctrines and the laws of these religions 
were inferences, arising naturally from the belief of certain 
memorable events, and from the expectation of other 
events, that were yet to take place ; the record of the past 
had become at once the rule of duty, and the charter of 
hope. To the dispersed and hated JeT\^ his books were 
the solace of his wounded national pride : to the perse- 
cuted Christian his books were his title to " a better 
country," and his support under present privations and 
sufferings. If the canonical books are valued by the 
Christian of modern times who believes them to be divine, 
they were valued with a far deeper sense by the early 
Christians, who, on the ground of undoubted miracles, 
received them as the word of Him who is omnipotent. 

The veneration felt by the Jews for their sacred books 
was of a kind that is altogether without parallel : the 
reverence of the Christians for theirs, if it was not more 
profound, was much more impassioned, and this feeling 
gave intensity to a sentiment wholly unlike any with 
which one might seek to compare it : the fondness of a 



OF THE BIBLICAL EVIDENCE. 185 

learned Greek or Eoman for his books, was but in 
comparison as the delight of a child with his toys. 

To this deep feeling towards the sacred writings, in 
the minds of Christians, was owing, not onlj the con- 
cealment and the preservation of copies in times of 
active persecution ; but the assiduous reproduction of 
them by persons of all ranks who found leisure to 
occupy themselves in a work which they deemed to be 
so meritorious, and which they found to be so consoling. 

5. The respect paid to them by copyists of later 
ages. 

We have seen that, throughout the middle ages, 
though nothing like a widely diffused taste for the 
classic authors existed^ yet at all times, there were, here 
and there, individuals by whom they were read and 
valued, and by whose agency and influence so much 
care was bestowed upon their preservation as served to 
insure a safe transmission of them to modern times. 
But that the Latin authors, at any time after the decline 
of the western empire, received the benefit of a careful 
and competent collation of copies there is little reason 
to believe. Of the Greek authors there were issued new 
recensions from Alexandria, while that city continued to 
be the seat of learning ; and some measure of the same 
care was exercised by the scholars of Constantinople ; 
yet even there the celebrated works of antiquity suffered 
a great degree of neglect during the last four centuries 
of the eastern empire. 

But in this respect,, as well as in those already 
mentioned, the text of the Scriptures^ Jewish and 



186 RELATIVE STEENaTH 

Christian — possesses an incomparable advantage over 
that of the classic authors. The scrupnlosity and the 
servile minuteness of the Jewish copyists in tran- 
scribing the Hebrew Scriptures are well known ; in a 
literal sense of the phrase, *' not a tittle of the law" 
was slighted : not only — as with the Greeks — was the 
number of verses in each book noted, but the number of 
words and of letters ; and the central letter of each book 
being distingaished, it became, as a point of calculation, 
the key-stone of that portion of the volume. This 
unexampled exactness affords security enough for the 
safe transmission of the text; and if there were any 
grounds for the suspicion that the Eabbis, to weaken 
the evidence adduced against them by the Christians, 
wilfully corrupted some particular passages, we have 
other security, as we shall see, against the consequences 
of such an attempt. 

The flame of true piety was, at no time, extinguished 
in the Christian community; nor can any century or 
half century of the middle ages be named, in relation to 
which it may not be proved that there were individuals 
by whom the books of the New Testament were known 
and regarded with a heartfelt reverence and affection. 
There were, besides, multitudes in the religious houses 
who, influenced perhaps by superstitious notions, thought 
it a work of superlative merit to execute a fair copy of 
the Scriptures, or any part of them ; and all the adorn- 
ments which the arts of the times afforded, were lavished 
to express the veneration of the scribe for the subject 
of his labours. 



OF THE BIBLICAL EVIDENCE. 187 

' And more than this ; — the Scriptures, especially in 
the first eight centuries, underwent several careful and 
skilful revisions in the hands of learned and able men, 
who, collating all the copies they could procure, restored 
the text wherever, as they thought, errors had been 
admitted. The prodigious labours of Origen in restoring 
the text of the Septuagint version have been often 
spoken of. The fathers of the Western, the African, 
and the Asiatic Churches — especially Jerome, Eusebius, 
and Augustine, with such means as they severally 
possessed, did what they could to stop the progress of 
accidental corruption in the sacred text, by instituting 
new comparisons of existing copies. 

6. The wide local separation, or the open hostility of 
those in whose custody these books were preserved. 

This is a circumstance of the utmost significance, 
and if it be not peculiar to the Jewish and Christian 
Scriptures, yet it belongs to them in a degree which 
places their uncorrupted preservation on a basis im- 
measurably more extended and substantial than that of 
any other ancient writings. The Latin authors were 
scantily dispersed over the Eoman world, and never 
were they in the keeping of distant nations, or hostile 
parties. The Greek classics had indeed, to some 
extent, come into the hands of the western nations, 
as well as of the Greeks, in earlier times, and 
during the middle ages. And, if any weight can be 
attached to the fact, some of these works were also in 
the keeping of the Arabians : but they were never the 
subject of mutual appeal by rival communities. 



188 EEL ATI VE STEENGTH 

The Hebrew nation has,, almost throughout the entire 
period of its history, been divided,, both by local sepa- 
ration, and by schisms. Probably the Israelites of India, 
and certainly the Samaritans, have been the keepers of 
the books of Moses — ajpart from the Jews, during a 
period that reaches beyond the date of authentic profane 
history. Throughout times somewhat less remote the 
Jews have not only been separated by distance, but 
divided by at least one complete schism — that on the 
subject of the Rabbinical traditions, which has dis- 
tinguished the sect of the Karaites from the mass of 
the nation. 

The reproach of the Christian Church — its sects and 
divisions — has been, in part at least, redeemed by the 
security thence arising, for the uncorrupted transmission 
of its records. Almost the earliest of the Christian 
apologists avail themselves of this argument in proof of 
the integrity of the sacred text. Augustine especially 
urged it against those who endeavoured to impeach its 
authority : nor was there ever a time when an attempt, 
on any extensive scale — even if otherwise it might 
have been practicable — to alter the text would not have 
raised an outcry in some quarter. From the earliest 
times the common Rule of Faith was held up for the 
purposes of defence or of aggression by the Church, and 
by some dissentient party. Afterwards the partition 
of the Christian community into two hostile bodies, of 
which Rome and Constantinople were the heads, afforded 
security against any general consent to effect alterations 
of the te:^t. And iu still later ages a few uncorrupted 



OF THE BIBLICAL EVIDENCE. 189 

communities, existing within tiie bounds of tlie Komisli 
Church, became the guardians of the sacred volume. 

7. The visible effects of these books from age to age. 

On this point also the history of the Greek and Latin 
classics affords only the faintest semblance of that 
evidence by means of which the existence and influence 
of the Scriptures may be traced from the earliest times 
after their publication, through all successive ages. The 
Greek and Latin authors indicated their continued 
existence scarcely at all beyond the walls of schools and 
halls of learning. During a full thousand years the 
world saw them not — governments did not embody 
them in their laws or institutions; — the people had 
no consciousness of them. Tliey were less known, and 
less thought of abroad, than were the ashes of the 
dead — than the bones, teeth, blood, tears, and tatters of 
the Greek and Eomish martyrs. 

How different are the facts that present themselves on 
the side of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures ! The 
Jews — in the sight of all nations — have, through a well- 
known and uncontested period of two thousand five 
hundred years, exhibited a living model of the vene- 
rable volume which was so long ago delivered to them, 
and which still they fondly cherish. And though long 
since debarred from the enjoyment of all that was 
splendid or cheering in their institutions, and though 
rent av/ay from their land as well as their worship, and 
though too often blind to the moral grandeur of their 
law, and mistaken in the meaning of their prophets, 
they hold unbroken the shell of the religious system 



190 RELATIVE STEENGTH 

which is described in their books. Whatever in their 
religion was of less valne — ^whatever served only to 
cover and protect the vital parts — whatever was the 
most peculiar, and the least important, whatever might 
have been laid aside without damage or essential change, 
has been retained by these wanderers; while that 
which was precious — the sacred books excepted — has 
been lost. 

The Christian Scriptures have marked their path 
through the field of time, not in the regions of religion 
only, or of learning, or of politics ; but in the entire 
condition — moral, intellectual, and political — of the 
Em'opean nations. The history of no period since the 
first publication of these writings can be intelligible 
apart from the supposition of their existence and dif- 
fusion. If we look back along the eighteen centuries 
past, we watch the progress of an influence, sometimes 
indeed marking its presence in streams of blood — 
sometimes in fires, sometimes by the fall of idol temples, 
sometimes by the rearing of edifices decked with new 
symbols ; nor can the distant and mighty movement be 
explained otherwise than by knowing that the books we 
now hold and venerate were then achieving the over- 
throw of the old and obstinate evils of idolatry. It is 
needless to say that the history of Europe in all sub- 
sequent periods has implied, by a thousand forms of 
false profession, and by the constancy of the few, the 
continued existence of the Christian Scriptmxs. 

8. The body of references and quotations. 

The successive references of the Greek authors, one 



OF THE BIBLICAL EVIDENCE. 191 

to anotlier, tliougli tliey are amply sufficient, in most 
instances, to establish the antiquity of the works quoted, 
furnish a very imperfect aid in ascertaining the purity of 
the existing text, or in amending it where apparently 
it is faulty. A large number of these references are 
merely allusive, consisting only of the mention of an 
author's name, with some vague citation of his meaning. 
And even in those authors who make copious and verbal 
quotations, such as Strabo, Plutarch, Hesychius, Aulus 
Gellius, Stob^eus, Marcellinus, Photius, Suidas, and 
Eustathius, a lax method of quotation, in many in- 
stances, robs such quotations of much of their value for 
purposes of criticism. And yet, after every deduction 
of this kind has been made, the reader of the classics 
feels an irresistible conviction that this network of 
mutual or successive references could not have resulted 
from machination, contrivance, or from anything but 
reality; it affords a proof, never to be refuted, of the 
genuineness of the great mass of ancient literature. 

But as to the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, this 
kind of evidence, reaching far beyond the mere proof 
of antiquity and genuineness, is ample and precise 
enough to establish the integrity of nearly the entire 
text of the books in question. These writings were not 
simply succeeded by a literature of a similar cast ; but 
they actually created a vast body of literature altogether 
devoted to their elucidation ; and this elucidation took 
every imaginable form of occasional comment upon 
single passages — of argument upon certain topics, re- 
quiring numerous scattered quotations, and of complete 



192 RELATIVE STRENGTH 

annotation, in wliicli nearly tlie whole of tlie original 
antlior is repeated. From the E>abbinical paraphrases, 
and from the works of the Christian writers of the first 
seven centm'ies (to come later is unnecessary) the whole 
text of the Scriptures might have been recovered if the 
originals had since perished. 

If any one is so uninformed as to suppose that this 
kind of evidence is open to uncertainty, or that it admits 
of refutation, let him, if he has access to an ordinary 
English library, open the volumes of writers of all 
classes since the days of Elizabeth, and see how many 
allusions to Shakespeare, and how many verbal quota- 
tions from his plays, and how many commentaries upon 
portions, or upon the whole of them he can find ; and 
then let him ask himself if there remains the possibility 
of doubting that these dramas — such in the main as they 
now are, were in existence at the accession of James I. 
If these quotations and allusions were not more than 
a fifth or a tenth part of what they actually are, the 
proof would not, in fact, be less conclusive than it is, 

9. Early versions. 

For the purpose of establishing the antiquity, genuine- 
ness, and integrity of the Scriptures, no other proof need 
be adduced than that which is afforded by the ancient 
versions now extant. When accordant translations of 
the same writings, in several unconnected languages, 
and in languages which have long ceased to be verna- 
cular, are in existence, every other kind of evidence may 
be regarded as superfluous. 

In this respect a comparison between the classic 



OF THE BIBLICAL EVIDENCE. 193 

authors and tlie Scriptures can barely Ibe instituted; 
for scarcely anything that deserves to be called a trans- 
lation of those writers — executed at a very early period 
after their first publication, is extant. But, on the other 
side, the high importance attached by the Jews to the 
Old Testament, and by the early Christians to the New, 
and the earnest desire of the poor and unlearned to 
possess, in their own tongue, the words of eternal life, 
suggested the idea, and introduced the practice, of 
making complete and faithful translations of both. 

Thus it is that, independently of the original text, the 
Old Testament exists in the Chaldee paraphrases or 
Targums ; in the Septuagint, or Greek version ; in the 
translations of Aquila, of Symmachus, and of Theo- 
dosian; in the Syriac and the Latin, or Vulgate ver- 
sions ; in the Arabic, and in the Ethiopic ; not to 
mention others of later date. 

The New Testament has been conveyed to modern 
times, in whole or in part, in the Peshito, or Syriac 
translation, in the Coptic, in several Arabic versions, in 
the -Ethiopic, the Armenian, the Persian, the Gothic, 
and in the old Latin versions. 

10. The vernacular extinction of the languages, or 
of the idioms, in which these books were written. 

To write Attic Greek was the ambition and the 
affectation of the Constantinopolitan writers of the third 
and fourth centuries ; and thus also, to acquire a pure 
Latinity, was assiduously aimed at by writers of the 
middle ages ; and, in fact, a few of them so far suc- 
ceeded in this sort of imitation that they executed some 





194 EEL ATI VE STRENGTH 

forgeries, on a small scale, wliich would hardly have 
been detected, if they had not wanted external proof. 

But now the pure Hebrew — such as it had been 
spoken and written before the Babylonish captivity, had 
so entirely ceased to be vernacular during the removal 
of the Jews from their land, that immediately after their 
return the original Scriptures needed- to be interpreted 
to the people by their Eabbis ; nor is there any evidence 
that the power of writing the primitive language was 
affected by these Rabbis, whose commentaries are 
composed in the dialect that was vernacular in their 
times. 

As to the Hellenistic Greek of the New Testament, 
differing as it does, from the style of the classic authors, 
and even from that of the Septuagint, to which it is the 
most nearly allied, it very soon passed out of use ; for 
the later Christian writers, in the Greek language, had, 
in most instances, formed their style before the time of 
their conversion ; or at least they aimed at a style, widely 
differing from that of the apostles and evangelists. The 
idiom of the New Testament, in which phrases or forms 
of speech borrowed from the surrounding languages 
occur, resulted from the very peculiar education and 
circumstances of the writers, which were such as to 
make their dialect, in many particulars, unlike any 
other style ; and such as could not fail soon to become 
extinct. 

11. The means of comparison with spurious works ; 
or with works intended to share the reputation that had 
been acquired by others. 



OF THE BIBLICAL EVIDENCE. 195 

Imitations — whether good or bad — are useful in 
serving to set originals in a more advantageous light. 
Good imitations, calling into activity, as they do, all the 
acumen and the utmost diligence of critics, enable them 
to place genuine writings out of the reach of suspicion. 
Bad imitations, by serving as a foil or contrast, exhibit 
more satisfactorily, the dignity, the consistency, and the 
simplicity of what is genuine. 

Several good imitations of the style of Cicero have 
appeared in different ages, and they have called for so 
much acuteness on the part of ctitics as have materially 
strengthened the evidence of the genuineness of his 
acknowledged works. In like manner the celebrated 
epistles of Phalaris excited a learned and active con- 
troversy, the beneficial result of which was not so much 
the settling of the particular question in debate, as the 
concentration of powerful and accomplished minds upon 
the general subject of the genuineness of ancient books, 
by means of which other questionable remains of an- 
tiquity received the implicit sanction of retaining their 
claims, after they had been brought within the reach of 
so fiery an ordeal. 

Many bad imitations of classic authors have been 
offered to the world, and some such are still extant ; and 
som.etimes these are appended to the author's genuine 
works. No one can read these spurious pieces imme- 
diately after he has made himself familiar with such as 
are genuine, without receiving, from the contrast, a 
forcible impression of the truth and reality of the latter. 
The life of Homer, for example, which is usually 

02 



196 EEL ATI VE STRENGTH 

appended to the history of Herodotus, and which claims 
his name, and which has something of his manner, 
yet presents a contrast which few readers can fail to 
observe. 

No good imitations, either of the Jewish or Christian 
Scriptures, have ever appeared ; but in the place of that 
elaborate investigation which the existence of such pro- 
ductions would have called forth^ other motives of the 
strongest kind have prompted a fuller and more labo- 
rious examination of the Scriptures than any other 
writings have endured. 

Bad imitations of the style of the Scriptures — some 
of the Old Testament, and many of the New — have been 
attempted, and are still in existence ; and they are such 
as to afford the most striking illustration that can be 
imagined of the difference in simplicity, dignity, and 
consistency, which one should expect to find, severally, in 
the genuine and the spurious. The apocryphal books 
(which however are not, most of them, properly termed 
spurious) afford an advantageous contrast in this way, to 
the genuine or canonical writings of the Old Testament ; 
and as to the spurious gospels — passing under the names 
of Peter, Judas, Nicodemus, Thomas, Barnabas — a very 
cursory examination of them is enough to enhance, im- 
measurably, the confidence we feel in the genuineness of 
the true Gospels and Epistles. 

The preservation of these latter worthless productions 
to modern times, is an extraordinary fact, and it affords 
proof of a state of things, the knowledge of which is 
important in questions of literary antiquity — namely, 



OF THE BIBLICAL EVIDENCE. 197 

that there were many copyists in the middle ages who 
wrote, and went on writing, mechanically^ whatever 
came in their way, without exercising any discrimina- 
tion. Now there is more satisfaction in knowing that 
ancient books have come down through a hlind and 
unthinking medium of this sort, than there would be in 
believing that we possess only such things as the 
copyists, in the exercise of an assumed censorship, 
deemed worthy to be handed down to posterity. It is 
far better that we should — by accident and ignorance, 
have lost some valuable works, and that, by the same 
means, some worthless ones have been preserved, than 
that the results of accident and ignorance should have 
been excluded by the constant exercise of a power of 
selection governed by, we know not what rule or in- 
fluence. Nothing more pernicious can be imagined 
than the existence, from age to age, of a synod of 
copyists sagely determining what works should be 
perpetuated, and what should be suffered to fall into 
oblivion. Happily for literature and religion, there were, 
in the monasteries, numbers of unthinking labourers, 
who, in selecting the subject of their mindless toils, 
seemed to have followed the easy rule of taking— the 
next book on the shelf! 

12. The strength of the inference that may be drawn 
from the genuineness of the books to the credibility of 
their contents. 

Nothing can be more simple or certain than the 
inference derived from the acknowledged antiquity and 
genuineness of an historical work, in proof of the general 



198 EELATIVE STEENGTH 

credibility of tlie narrative it contains. If it be proved 
that Cicero's Orations against Catiline, and that Sal- 
lust's History of the Catiline War, were written by 
the persons whose names they bear ; or if it were only 
proved that these compositions were extant and well 
known as early as the age of Augustus ; that they were 
then universally attributed to those authors, and were 
universally admitted to be authentic records of matters 
of fact; and if the same facts are, with more or less 
explicitness, alluded to by the writers of the same, and 
of the following age, there remains no reasonable sup- 
position, except that of the truth of the story — in its 
principal circumstances, by aid of which the existence 
and the acceptance of these narratives, these orations, 
and these allusions, so near to the time of the conspiracy, 
can be accounted for. 

In Sallust's History some facts may be erroneously 
stated ; or the principal facts may be represented imder 
the colouring of prejudice. In the Orations of Cicero 
there may be (or we might for argument sake suppose 
there to be) exaggeration, and an undue severity of 
censure ; but after any such deductions have been made, 
or any others which reason will allow, it remains in- 
contestably certain that, if these loritings he genuine, the 
story, in the main, is true. The sophisms of a college 
of sceptics, in labouring to show the improbability of 
the facts, or the suspiciousness of the evidence, would 
not avail to shake our belief if we are convinced that 
the books are not spurious. 

Nor is this inference less direct, or less valid in the 



OF THE BIBLICAL EVIDENCE. l99 

case above mentioned, tlian in any similar instance of 
more recent occurrence. It is as inevitable to believe 
tliat Catiline conspired against the Eoman state, and 
failed in the attempt, as that the descendants of James 11. 
excited rebellions in Scotland, or that a French General 
was for a short time king of Naples. In the one case, 
as in the others, unless the documents — all of them, 
have been forged, the facts must be true. 

The principle upon which such an inference is 
founded, scarcely admits of an exception. Narratives 
of alleged, but unreal facts, may have been suddenly 
promulgated, and for a moment credited ; or false nar- 
ratives of events — concealed by place or circumstances 
from the public eye, may have gained temporary credit. 
Or narratives, true in their outline, may have been 
falsified in all those points concerning which the public 
could not fairly judge ; and thus the false, having been 
slipped in along with the true, has passed, by oversight, 
upon the general faith. But no such suppositions meet 
the case of various public transactions, taking place 
through some length of time, and in different localities, 
and which were witnessed by persons of all classes, 
interests, and dispositions, and which were uncontra- 
dicted by any parties at the time, and which were 
particularly recorded, and incidentally alluded to, by 
several writers whose works were widely circulated — 
generally accepted, and unanswered, in the age when 
thousands of persons were competent to judge of their 
truth. 

No one — to recur to the example mentioned above, 



200 EELATIVE STRENGTH 

is at liberty merely to say that lie witliliolds his faith 
from Sallust, and from Cicero, as he might, on many 
points, withhold it from Herodotus, from Diodorus, or 
from Plutarch. Yet even in that case, he ought to 
show cause of doubt, if he would not be charged with 
the frivolous affectation of possessing more sagacity than 
his neighbours pretend to. But in the other case, while 
in professing to doubt the facts, he is not able to impugn 
the antiquity of the records, he only gives evidence of 
some want of coherence in his modes of thinking. He 
who professes not to believe the narrative, should be 
required to give an intelligible account of the existence 
of the writings, on the supposition that the events never 
took place. 

When historical facts which, in their nature, are fairly 
open to direct proof, are called in question, it is an 
irksome species of trifling to make a halt upon twenty 
indirect arguments, while the centre ^roof—ihoX which 
a clear mind fastens upon intuitively, remains undis- 
posed of. In an investigation that is purely historical, 
and which is as simple as any that the page of history 
presents, it boots nothing to say that the books of the New 
Testament contain doctrines which do not accord with 
our notions of the great system of things ; or that they 
enjoin duties which are grievous and impracticable ; or 
that they favour despotism, or engender strifes. It avails 
nothing to say that some professors of Christianity are 
hypocrites, and that therefore the religion is not true. No 
objections of this sort weaken in any way that evidence 
upon which we believe that our island was once possessed 



OF THE BIBLICAL EVIDENCE. 201 

by the Komans. But yet they have as much weight in 
counterpoising that evidence, as they have in balancing 
the proof of the facts that are affirmed in the New 
Testament. If such objections were ten-fold more valid 
than sophistry can make them, they would not remove, 
or alter, or impair, one grain of the proper proof, 
belonging to the historical proposition under inquiry. 

The question is not whether we admire and approve 
of Christianity, or not ; or whether we wish to submit 
our conduct to its precepts, and to abide by the hope it 
offers ; or intend to risk the hazards of it being true. 
The question is not whether, in our opinion, these books 
have been a blessing to the world, or the contrary ; but 
simply this — whether the religion was promulgated 
and its documents were extant, and were well known 
throughout the Eoman empire, in the reign of Nero. 

There are evasions enough, by means of which we 
may remove from our view the inference which follows 
from an admission of the antiquity and genuineness of 
the Christian Scriptures. But contradictian may be 
challenged when it is affirmed that, if the Gospels, the 
Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles of Paul, of Peter, of 
John, and of James, were written in the age claimed 
for them, and were immediately diffused throughout 
Palestine, Asia Minor, Africa, Greece, and Italy, then 
this fact carries with it inevitably the truth of the 
Christian system. 

Remote historical facts, though incapable of that kind 
of palpable proof which overrules contradiction, are yet 
open to a kind of proof which no one who really under- 



202 ■ EELATIVE STRENGTH 

stands it can doubt. Just on this ground stand all the 
main facts of ancient history ; — they are inevitably 
admitted as true by all into whose minds the whole of 
the evidence enters ; and they are believed or doubted, 
in every degree between blind faith and blind scepti- 
cism, by those whose apprehension of the facts is 
defective, or obscure, or perverted. 

When it is said that the events recorded in the four 
Gospels are presented to us in a form that has been 
purposely adapted to exercise our faith, it should be 
added, by way of illustrating the exact meaning of the 
words — that the events recorded by Thucydides and 
Tacitus are also presented to us in a form that is 
adapted to exercise our faith. Yet it would be more 
exactly proper to say — that this sort of evidence is 
adapted to give exercise to reason ; ioY faith has no part 
in things which come within the known boundaries of 
the system in the midst of which we are called to act 
our parts. And here it should be understood that facts 
(intelligible in themselves) may, in the fullest sense, be 
supernatural, and yet when they are duly attested, in 
conformity with the ordinary principles of evidence, they 
as much belong to the system with which we are every 
day concerned, as do the most familiar transactions of 
common life. 

The Scriptures do indeed make a demand upon our 
faith ; but this is exclusively in relation to facts which 
belong to a world above and beyond that with which 
we are conversant^ and of which facts we could know 
nothing by any ordinary means of information. Our 



OF THE BIBLICAL EVIDENCE. ' 203 

assent to miraculous events, when properly attested, 
is demanded on the ground of common sense : the facts 
themselves are as comprehensible as the most ordinary 
occurrences ; and the evidence upon which they are 
attested implies nothing beyond the well-known prin- 
ciples of human nature. If then we reject this evidence, 
we exhibit, not a want of faith, for that is not called for; 
but a want of reason. To one who affected to question 
the received account of the death of Julius Csesar, we 
should not say " you want faith," but '' you want 
sense." It is the very nature of a miracle to appeal 
to the evidence of universal experience, in order that, 
afterwards, a demand may be made upon faith, in 
relation to extra-mundane facts. 



204 ILLUSTRATIVE FACTS 



CHAPTEE XV. 

ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE PRECEDINa STATEMENTS: — 
A MORNING AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 

And now, at this stage of our progress, let the reader 
indulge tlie author to the extent of a page of metaphor 
or allegory. — -Imagine then that we are standing on the 
margin of a mighty river, the opposite shore of which 
is scarcely visible ; and as to the origin of this world 
of waters, it is far remote and is unknown : — as to the 
ocean into which it shall at length empty itself and its 
treasures — this is distant also, nor do we find it any- 
where laid down in our maps. The flow of this river 
is tranquil — its surface is glassy ; hut upon this surface 
there float samples and fragments, innumerable, of the 
products of each of the countries which it has watered 
in its course : — here come rafts, laden with well-packed 
bales, and there, confusedly mingled, are things more 
than can be counted — torn away — rent — shattered — 
coated with rust — wrapped around with weeds. Moving 
onward, we see the symbols and the devices of nations 
long ago extinct, and the utensils of a forgotten civilisa- 
tion, and the products of lands — thousands of miles up 
the stream ; and these entangled with the symbols, the 



THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 205 

devices, the rare and curious products, of some country 
next above us. On the bosom of this mighty river 
there float samples of all things, and these commingled 
in all imaginable modes. 

This is our day-dream : — now for the interpretation 
of it. "We have imagined ourselves to be stationed in 
any one of the saloons of the British Museum ; or thsgt 
we are passing up and down, from one of these halls 
to another: and at length are coming to a rest in the 
centre of the New Reading-room. The countless col- 
lections of antiquities — marbles — coins — ^gems — utensils 
— weapons — costumes — the manuscripts — the illumina- 
tions, and the printed books — what are all these things, 
but so many relics of remote ages which, favoured by 
various chances, have floated down to this, our own era, 
upon the broad surface of the River of Time ? 
■ But are these tens of thousands — these hundreds of 
thousands of individual objects, are they so many 
disjointed and disconnected particles ? — this is far from 
being the fact. It is a very small number of things, in 
this vast collection, concerning which an instructed 
Curator would acknowledge his ignorance, as to what 
it is, and to what age it belongs, and of what country 
or people it is a relic. As to a thousand to one of all 
the single contents of the British Museum, each of them 
links itself, either nearly, or remotely, with the nine 
hundred, ninety and nine, of its neighbours — right and 
left ; or perhaps with some articles that are exhibited in 
the opposite wing of the building : as for instance — here 
is a coin, the legend upon which we should have failed 



206 ILLUSTRATIVE FACTS: 

to read, or to understand, had it not Ibeen that a Greek 
writer, of whose works a sole manuscript has come down 
to modern times, incidentally mentions a fact concerning 
some ohscure town of Asia Minor, and its history, under 
the Eoman emperors, of which otherwise we should 
have been ignorant. * 

Let us avail ourselves of another supposition, remote 
as it may he from the fact ; and it is this — That the 
author, and the reader, of this book, whom we imagine 
to be now pacing together the saloons of the Museum, 
are possessed of that universality of learning, and 
that vastness of antiquarian accomplishment, which 
enables the gentleman at the centre table of the 
Reading-room to answer all inquirers, and to aid and 
guide them all in carrying forward their various 
researches. If, then, the author and the reader were 
gifted in any such manner as this, we might then, with a 
sort of second sight, or a veritable clairvoyance, look upon 
the countless stores around us as if they were all falling 
into an appointed order, or were obeying some natural 
law of mutual attraction and cohesion : as thus — there 
goes an almost illegible manuscript, attaching itself to a 
colossal sculpture — much as feathers stick themselves 
on to an electric conductor : — there are coins, arranging 
themselves spontaneously, like a crown of laurel leaves, 
around the brows of busts : — there are weapons and 
fragments of armour, edging themselves on to a copy 
of Poly bins: — there are bits of a pediment, or the 
chippings of a column, claiming a standing-place upon 
the Greek text of Procopius — and why ? it is because 



THE BEITISH MUSEUM. 207 

these fragments belong to an edifice of the times of 
Justinian, which he has described. And now, as to the 
printed books, and the manuscripts, whence many of the 
printed books drew their existence, if we will give way 
to the ideal for a few moments, we shall see them float- 
ing out from their shelves, in this vast circus, and know- 
ingly arranging themselves, in a sort of pyramidal form, 
as if to exhibit their real relationship of quotation, and 
of reference, in the order of time— the more recent to the 
more ancient— the many to the few;— until the pile- 
made up of a million of books, is surmounted by the 
two or three that quote none older than themselves, and 
that are quoted by all. 

What then is our inference ? It is this : that as to 
the persons and the events— the doings and the notions 
—the thoughts and the ways— the customs and the 
manners— the philosophy— the literature— the religion 
—the politics— the civilisation, of the nations of all 
those ages which are comprehended within the limits 
of what is called the historic period— these innumerable 
matters are assuredly known to us, at this time ;— and 
they have become known to us with this degree of 
certainty (in the main) not by the precarious and insu- 
lated testimony of a few writers, whose works have 
reached modern times— we know not how; but very 
much otherwise than thus ; for it is by means of the 
inter-related, and the mutually attestative evidence of 
thousands of witnesses— witnesses in stone and marble, 
m metallic substances, coins and brass plates, in membra- 
nous records, and in writings upon every other material, 



208 ILLUSTRATIVE FACTS: 

and in every imaginable fasliion ; and all these things 
are so netted together and so welded, and dove-tailed, 
and linked, and glued, and sealed, into a vast con- 
glomerate, as that the combined testimony thence accru- 
ing in support of our voluminous historic beliefs is not 
less solid than are the granitic ribs of a continent ; and 
is as various, and as rich, as all the products of its surface 
— its faunas and its floras. 

So much for a momentary glance at the treasures, the 
vast accumulations of the British Museum ; — ^but now 
we might usefully take the Synopsis in hand, and give 
attention to some few of the articles that are named in 
it. What we are in search of are those attestations of 
ancient written evidences, touching the persons, the 
events, the manners, the religions, of ancient nations, 
which come upon us — we might say, by surprise, and 
which are derived from sources altogether and in every 
sense independent, and unconnected, one with another. 

Take with you, in one hand, your Tacitus, Sallust, 
Dion Cassius; — and in the other hand, your Virgil, 
Horace, Juvenal, and Ovid. These writers — the one 
set as historians, the other set as poets, build up to our 
view the throne, and its personages, of the Imperial 
Times — say, of two centuries, reckoned back from the 
life -time of the last of them. But through what 
channels have the hooks come into our hands? The 
editors of the printed copies assure us that there had 
come into their possession, in each instance, one, two, 
three manuscripts, that had been raked out of the 
forgotten heaps of this or that monastery, or other 



THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 209 

conservatory of curious articles. As to the greater 
number of these manuscripts, they could not be assigned 
to an age much beyond the ninth century; therefore, 
on the supposition that they are genuine works — the 
products of a time seven hundred, or a thousand years 
earlier, what the editor had under his eye must have been 
nothing better than a copy — from a copy — or perhaps, 
from several in succession ! Is not this line of proof 
somewhat precarious ? Ought we to trust ourselves to it ? 
Advance toward the left hand, from the entrance hall, 
and by the time you have moved on a dozen steps, the 
volumes in your hands, if they were gifted with con- 
sciousness, would begin to twitch and to jerk themselves 
about, as if uneasy in being held away from their old 
friends, right and left, whom they recognise, perched on 
the pedestals, and fixed to the walls. Whence is it that 
these solid antiquities have been brought hither ? Not 
from those same lumber- vaults in the monasteries, or the 
royal libraries of Europe, whence we have received the 
aforesaid manuscripts ; — not so, but from deep under- 
ground — from cavities — from underneath pavements, 
sixty feet or more lower than the present surface : they 
have been picked up in cornfields ; they have been sifted 
from out of heaps of rubbish; they have been taken 
from the recesses of the houses of a city, buried by a 
volcanic eruption, many centuries ago. These manifold 
samples of an ancient civilisation have been fished up 
from the beds of rivers and the bottoms of lakes ; and 
these recoveries have been effected in all these and many 
other modes over the extent of Europe, and of Southern 

P 



210 ILLUSTRATIVE FACTS : 

and Western Asia, and of Nortli Africa. There is no 
possibility therefore of calling in question this million- 
tongued testimony ; we must not gainsay what is affirmed 
by these tongues of stone and of brass, of silver and of 
gold. • 

And the more, in any instance, the coincidence is 
slender and remote, or, as one might say, frivolous or 
unimportant, so much the surer, and the more to be 
relied upon is it, in what it does affirm : as thus — Look 
to your Synopsis, page 87, Compartment III. : — " A pig 
of lead, inscribed with the name of the Emperor 
Domitian, when he was consul for the eighth year, 
A.D. 82, weighing 154 lbs. It was discovered in 1731 
underground, on Hayshaw Moor, in the West Eiding 
of Yorkshire, half-way between an ancient lead-mine, 
north of Pately Bridge, and the Eoman road from 
Ilkley {Olicana) to Aldborough [Isurium)^ This pig 
had slept where he was dropped about 1,650 years. 

" A pig of lead, inscribed with the name of the 
Emperor Hadrian, weighing 191 lbs. ; found in 1796 or 
'97, at Snailbeach Farm, parish of Westbury, 10 miles 
south-west of Shrewsbury." Then follow some other 
pigs, whose slumbers underground have been more or 
less prolonged and profound. 

" A pig of lead, inscribed with the name of L. Aruco- 
nius Verecundus, and the letters Metal. Lvtvd., pro- 
bably the mine of Lutudce, Found near Matlock Bank, 
in Derbyshire." 

" A pig of lead, inscribed CL . TB . LYT . BE . EX . 
AEG. ; found with three other pigs and some broken 



THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 211 

E-oman pottery, at Broomer's Hill, in tlie parish of Pul- 
borougli, Sussex, January 31, 1824, close to the Eoman 
Eoad, Stone Street, from London to Chicliester." 

'' A pig of lead, inscribed witli the name of Britan- 
nicus, the son of the Emperor Claudius ; found on the 
Mendip Hills^ Somersetshire." 

So much for these pigs. What is it which they 
might say, if we were to bring them into court ? Some- 
thing of this sort : At this time, in the streets of the 
stannary towns in Cornwall, there are to be seen blocks 
— pigs of tin, stamped in a manner similar to the letter- 
ing of these pigs of lead in the British Museum. This 
stamping is effected for the purpose of securing the dues 
of the Duchy of Cornwall, and the symbols and the 
letters indicate the political fact that the Prince of 
Wales, as Duke of Cornwall, lays a hand upon every 
pound of tin that is smelted in the county; and thus, 
too, the stamping of the produce of the lead-mines of 
Britain gives evidence of the fact that the Romans were 
not merely resident in Britain at the time, but were 
masters also of the island, and the lords of its mineral 
products. Then the lettering itself finds its interpre- 
tation in the Roman imperial history, -and this history 
comes into our hands, partly as it has been narrated by 
the Roman historians above mentioned ; partly in the 
form of sculptures, statues, busts, and bas-reliefs ; and 
partly, and very copiously, in the unquestionable form 
of the coins of the same emperors, which alone would 
suffice for putting us in possession of the series of events, 
greater and smaller, through a course of many centuries. 

p 2 



212 ILLUSTRATIVE FACTS: 

But what the reader should here keep in view is this : 
that as our present thesis is — the safe and sure trans- 
mission of ancient books, by the means of often- 
repeated copyings, through the lapse of ages, an 
evidence to this effect — and lit is the most conclusive 
that can be imagined or desired, is afforded us when, 
in passing through collections, such as those treasured 
in the British Museum, the Books in question are 
found to furnish a coherent, and a continuous, and an 
exact interpretation of these palpable and ponderous 
antiquities. Yet, it is manifest that, unless the books were 
in the main genuine, they could not have supplied any 
interpretations, such as are those which we find in them. 
Go on now to the historical sculptures — the statues, 
and the busts of the imperial times. These, for the 
most part, are susceptible of authentication by means of 
the coins of the same emperors, which may be seen — 
by " order " — in another department of the Museum ; 
the likenesses are indisputable, and the historic reality 
of the two samples of Eoman art is thus far made good. 
But beyond this we may safely go. From the Roman 
writers — specially Tacitus, Suetonius, and Dion Cassius 
— we acquire what we need not doubt to be a true idea 
of the individual character, the temperament, the edu- 
cation, the public and private behaviour, and the style 
of the series of imperial persons, from Julius Caesar, 
onward, to the times of each of these writers. What 
then is the verdict of our physiognomical instincts, 
when we compare the busts or statues, for instance, of 
Augustus and of Tiberius, of Nero and of Trajan ? We 



THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 213 

could no more take these, one for tlie other, than we 
could misname the portraits of Philip of Spain, or the 
Duke of Alva, put by the side of George Washington, 
or John Howard ; or misjudge those of Oliver Cromwell, 
and John Milton ; or of Admiral Blake, and Alexander 
Pope. We need not wait until a science of physiognomy 
has been concocted before we may risk a guess in writing 
the names under portraits of Lord Chatham, Dr. John- 
son, and Oliver Goldsmith. Mistakes, in single instances, 
may be made, but not in the long run ; and when, on 
the one hand, we take the entire series of royal portraits, 
eastern and western, from the first of the Ptolemies to 
Charlemagne, and, on the other hand, the hooks of the 
series of contemporary historians, we shall receive, from 
this large collation of independent evidences, an irre- 
sistible conviction of the general authenticity of the 
latter ; and therefore we must cease to entertain doubts 
on this question of the secure transmission of ancient 
books to modern times. 

It would be of little avail here to cite a few single 
instances of the agreement of Boman coins with written 
history, for such instances are countless. The reader 
who would wish to inform himself, in whole, or in part, 
on this extensive subject, should take in hand a Medallic 
History of Imperial Kome, which, as compared with the 
medallic treasures of the British Museum, will give him 
aid in following the train of public events through five 
or six centuries, exhibited and verified by the double 
line of testimonies — the metallic and the literary. Or 
he may be content to take, as a sufficient sample of this 



214 ILLUSTRATIVE FACTS : 

species of proof, the facts lie will find brought together 
in a small volume, " Akerman on the Coins of the 
Romans relating to Britain." 

There is another field upon which a gleaning, and 
more than a gleaning, may easily he made by help of 
the Eoman poets as our guides. These writers — and 
we need name only Ovid, Horace, Virgil, and Pro- 
pertius — are undoubtedly believed to have lived and 
flourished as the contemporaries of Julius Cassar, Au- 
gustus, Tiberius. Their writings, as we have them now 
in our hands, are accepted as genuine ; for the criticism 
which demonstrates the general integrity of the text 
(exceptions allowed for) is too erudite and careful to be 
called in question. Consequently, these writings have 
safely traversed a period of fifteen hundred years, ending 
with the date of the earliest printed editions : but this 
transit has been made by no other means than that of the 
copyists ; and therefore, if, as we shall see, a super-abun- 
dance of various and independent evidences removes 
the possibility of our doubting the fact, then this mode 
of transmission, precarious as it may seem, is found to 
be trustworthy, and our main point is established — 
namely. That ancient books have indeed come down to 
modern times — whole and entire. Let us look, for a 
moment, to this corroborative evidence — such as we find 
it offered to the eye, in passing through the saloons of 
the British Museum. 

The Roman poets were not, perhaps, themselves very 
firm believers in the Grecian mythology — considered 
religiously or historically : nevertheless, they took it up 



THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 215 

— sucli as it liad come into their hands — and it was a 
splendid inheritance — a boundless treasury of bright con- 
ceptions of superhuman power, beauty, grace ; a scheme 
of elegant sensuousness, with a touch of sublimity. Its 
fables, far more available for poetic purposes than any 
system of serious truths could have been, opened before 
the Koman poets a broad meadow land, in roaming 
through which the imitative, more than originative turn 
of the Eoman mind, might gather fruits and flowers, 
ripe and gay, and which asked only to be taken and 
enjoyed. So it is, therefore, that in every imaginable 
mode of lengthened poetic narrative, and of transient 
allusion, and of direct and of allusive reference, the gods 
and the goddesses, and the demi-gods, and the heroes of 
Greece come up upon the stage of the Koman poetry. 
These repetitions — these borrowings or plagiarisms, and 
these flashing glances, are countless : — sometimes they 
are formal; sometimes they are informal: — they are broad 
daylight views in some places, and in places innumerable 
they are as sparks only — visible for an instant. 

Now with what objects is it that these mythologic 
passages are in harmony? — with what is it that they 
correspond ? Our answer is — With tens of thousands of 
relics of ancient art which, through channels altogether 
independent of those through which the books have 
reached us, have come, at this time, to fill, and to over- 
fill the cabinets and museums of Europe — and thus, also, 
our British Museum. 

But then this mass of ponderable and visible evidences 
is inter-related in a very peculiar manner, which should 



216 ILLUSTRATIVE FACTS: 

"be borne in mind. We have just now referred to the 
correspondence which connects the historic sculptures — 
the statues and the busts of Roman personages, male 
and female, and the likenesses of the same men and 
women which are so copiously supplied in collections 
of the Koman imperial mintage. But now we pass on 
to the Gr^co-Roman saloons — the first, the second, and 
the third, as well as the basement-room. These are 
filled with mythologic sculptures — recovered from the 
soil of Italy and Greece : — they show us, in inimitable 
marbles, those same divinities, the principal and the 
subordinate, which the mind of Greece had imagined, 
and which the Roman artists adopted : these beautiful 
creations we at once recognise as the celestial personce 
with whom we have made acquaintance in the pages of 
the Roman poets : the conception of superhuman grace 
and power is the very same ; and the attendant symbols 
are the same. And now furnish yourself with the requi- 
site order for inspecting the collection of antique gems 
— precious (often) as to their material — precious^ incal- 
culably more so, by means of that exquisite taste and 
that inimitable executive skill which have made them 
what they are. 

These microscopic sculptures, in consequence of the 
value of the material, and the costliness of the work, 
and from their smallness, and the facility of preservation, 
were eagerly sought after by the opulent at the very 
time of their production ; and they have been most care- 
fully hoarded in every age, by the same class of persons ; 
and they have suffered far less injury in the lapse of 



THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 217 

time than antiquities of any other kind. Especially the 
intaglios — the indented sculptures, are, for the most part, 
as perfect and sharp now as they were eighteen hundred 
years ago. What is it, then, that these gems of art 
bring under our modern eyes ? — it is the very same ideal 
personages of the same mythology; — and the symbols are 
the same, and the air, and the grace, and the attributes 
of beauty and power are the same ; — there is the same 
sensuousness — there are the same ambiguous adven- 
tures; — there is the same poetry and the same art — 
poetry and art, admirable, indeed, how much soever it 
may be open to censure as to its moral quality. 

Here then we have in view three independent, but 
perfectly concurrent and mutually interpretative evi- 
dences — namely, first, the sculptures, secondly, the gems, 
and then the books — the poetry. If, in examining one of 
these classes of antiquities, we find ourselves at a loss in 
attempting to decipher its symbols or its allusions, any 
such difficulty vanishes — in most instances — when we 
betake ourselves to another class : — as thus — the gem ex- 
pounds the statue; or the poet, in a single verse, sheds his 
beam of light upon both. Thus it is that — with the three 
at our command — antiquity, throughout the rich and 
splendid region of its mythologies, stands unveiled before 
us ! Must we not grant that so many coherences, and so 
many correspondences, and so many interpretative agree- 
ments — €Ountless as they are — can have had their source 
in nothing but the realities of the age whence we believe 
them to have descended to modern times ? But if it be 
so, then it is true that ancient books — to wit, the Eoman 



218 ILLUSTRATIVE FACTS: 

poets — ^have been securely sent forward — thanks to tlie 
copyists ! — from age to age, through all the intervening 
years of so many centuries. 

If it were a volume th^t was now to be filled, instead 
of the few pages of this chapter, and if, instead of a 
morning at the British Museum, an entire season were to 
be diligently spent there, we should still want space and 
leisure for specifying a sample only of those articles 
which might properly be referred to in illustration of 
our present argument. Instead of doing so, we must 
move forward through the Elgin Saloon, only stopping 
to make this one observation — that these sculptures, and 
these bas-reliefs, and these inscriptions, would be to us, 
at this time, nothing better than a vast confusion — a mass 
of insoluble enigmas, if we did not carry with us the 
written remains of the Greek and Roman literature — the 
works of the historians, and the poets, and the drama- 
tists, and the orators, which were the creations of that 
same age of refined intelligence, and exquisite taste, 
and artistic skill : but so it is, that the written memorials 
of that brief period are found to be available for inter- 
preting the solid memorials of the same times, and these 
again for illustrating those. It was indeed a brief period : 
— it was a blossoming and a fruit-bearing summer 
month of the world's dull millennial year ; and during 
the long period that followed it — the autumn months, 
and the winter — there were none among the living who 
could either have written these books, or who could have 
chiselled these marbles ; but the books in one manner, 
and the marbles in another, have separately floated 



THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 219 

down upon the billows of time; and here we have 
them, confronted under one roof — ten thousand wit- 
nesses, attesting the reality of ancient history. 

From the classic antiquities we now advance, and 
enter the Assyrian Galleries. Everybody knows, 
or may easily know, in what way the sculptures, 
buried so many centuries, have now come to fill these 
long apartments, and how they thus find a resting-place 
under the roof of the British Museum. The places whence 
they have come, and the circumstances of their disin- 
terment, are (as we must suppose) known and familiar 
to the visitor in whose company we are spending this 
morning in its saloons. This being so, and if, more- 
over, we may believe that he has become, in some 
degree, conversant with the literature of ancient 
Greece — especially with its historians — Herodotus, 
Thucydides, Xenophon, Diodorus, and also Strabo — he 
will be qualified to understand what we mean in speak- 
ing of that hroad confirmation of the authenticity of 
ancient history which it receives from a glance at the 
contents of the "Assyrian Galleries." 

The above-named Greek writers, and these illus- 
trated as they are by the contemporary literature, give 
us a distinct image of Greece, and of its people, with 
their intellectuality, and their religion, and their taste ; 
and this portraiture is quite homogeneous in itself, and, 
as we have already said, it is corroborated and exhi- 
bited, in ten thousand instances, by the sculptures, and 
other objects found in the saloons we have just now 
visited. But now these same writers open up to us also — 



220 ILLUSTRATIVE FACTS: 

sometimes formallj, and sometimes incidentally — a pro- 
spect, eastward, far over the regions outstretched beyond 
the limits of the Greek civilisation. In those illimit- 
able expanses there existed a civilisation ; but it was 
quite of another aspect ; there was government, and 
social order ; but these were wholly unlike the insti- 
tutions of Greece. There were religions ; but they 
breathed another spirit : they uttered other voices ; they 
spoke of a different national economy. There was the 
same human nature; but it had been developed as if 
under conditions proper to another world. 

Now I will ask my companion to tell me with what 
sort of feeling it is, that, in passing from the monuments 
of Grecian life, and the remains of its arts, he enters these 
Assyrian galleries. Does there not take place an involun- 
tary impression to this effect — as if we were here setting 
foot upon the soil of another world ? We have crossed 
the threshold that divides one phase or mode of human 
existence from another mode of it ; there are here dis- 
played before us the indications of a different climate, 
a different terrestrial surface ; and the vegetation that 
covers it is of another class, nor are the animals that 
roam over it the same ; and the human forms, and the 
visages, and the costumes, and the attitudes, and the 
occupations, and the rites, are of another mould. In 
these galleries w^e are surrounded with the symbols and 
the appendages of a sombre and remorseless despotism. 
Greece had its warriors and its heroes, and its many 
orders of mind, and each freely developed ; but here the 
one master of prostrate millions of men is the solitary 



THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 221 

being : all things follow, or precede, or revolve around 
liim: there is one will, and it carried its purposes 
unchecked, alike by reason or humanity. 

Here then are the monuments of a world, such as 
that outlying and distant eastern world whereof we 
find scattered notices in the extant remains of the 
Greek literature. These notices serve as the interpre- 
tation, so far as they go, of these ponderous remains. 
The historians, the orators, the poets, flourishing under 
a refined civilisation, look over their enclosures, and 
they sketch, at points, the far-off barbaric civilisation 
of Asia, and we recognise, in the written memorials of 
that ruder social life, the features and characteristics of 
its sculptured memorials — as they are now in view. 

These coincidences are, we say, an evidence at large 
of the authenticity of that portion of ancient history 
which might seem to stand most in need of corro- 
boration. It is a broad witnessing to the truth. We 
might, however, descend to the particulars, and then 
might verify this proof in very many of its details ; but 
we must go on, and only fix attention, for a moment, 
upon a single line of these confirmatory coincidences ; 
and it is one which carries with it a momentous 
inference. 

There is one body of extant writings which is not only 
of much earlier date than the Greek literature— earlier 
even than its traditions, but which sprung up within 
the circle of the Asiatic world ; it is not Grecian— it pos^ 
sesses not the same merits, the same graces, or merits of 
a kindred order ; it has its own. Asiatic it is ; and yet 



222 ILLUSTEATIVE FACTS: 

it was so much insulated, and it was so decisively- 
national, that the report it makes of the surrounding 
social economies, is, wi a great degree, an independent 
report ; it looks on, as from a distance. We may expect, 
therefore, to find in the Hebrew literature — in its his- 
torians, poets, and prophets — a reflection of Asiatic life, 
rather than a native or home-made exhibition of it ; and 
such is the fact. The monster despotisms that had their 
seats by the side of the Tigris and the Euphrates, appear 
like phantoms of destructive power, as seen from the 
heights of Palestine. IN^ow, what we affirm is this ; that 
the idea we obtain, in perusing the Hebrew literature, 
of the Asiatic military despotisms, and of their horrific 
superstitions, is conspicuously realized — it is held out to 
our view with a vivid force and distinctness, as we walk 
up and down, gazing in awe upon these monstrous 
sculptm-es. The Hebrew writers denounce these de- 
stroyers of the nations ; and now let us confess that 
they have pictured them truly ; they have not calum- 
niated those remorseless tyrants — even the men of 
these colossal busts and these bas-reliefs, when they 
recount their deeds of blood, their spoliations, and their 
oppressions. 

Besides and beyond this — which we have called a 
broad confirmation of ancient history, and which arises 
spontaneously from the aspect of these Assyrian anti- 
quities — it is well known, and we are supposing our 
companion to be aware of the fact, that, since the dis- 
interment of these Assyrian sculptures, great progress 
has been made in the work of deciphering the inscrip- 



THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 223 

tions wlilcli appear upon many of them. At this time 
it may safely be affirmed that these records, inscrutable 
as they were thought to be, have spoken out their mean- 
ing. It is true also that these utterances from a long 
unknown world have fallen in with the testimony of 
written history — Grecian and Biblical, and that in rela- 
tion, especially, to the latter, many highly significant 
coincidences have presented themselves, rewarding the 
patient intelligence of those who have laboured on this 
field. But to this subject we shall have occasion to 
return in a following chapter. 

The marvels of the Egyptian galleries might lead us 
away even into yet another world ; but we have already 
touched upon the subject (pp. 146, and following), and 
therefore hasten forward, making a momentary stop at 
one object only, namely, the celebrated "Eosetta stone," 
thus described in the Synopsis : — 

" The Kosetta stone, containing three inscriptions of 
the same import, namely, one in hieroglyphics, another 
in a written character, called demotic or enchorial, and 
a third in the Greek language. These inscriptions 
record the services which Ptolemy the Fifth had ren- 
dered his country, and were engraved by order of the 
Synod of Priests, when they were assembled at Memphis 
for the purpose of investing him with the royal prero- 
gative. It is the key to the decipherment of the hiero- 
glyphical and demotic characters of Egypt. This stone 
was found near Rosetta, and it appears to have been 
placed in a temple dedicated to Atum by the monarch 
Nechao, of the twenty-sixth dynasty: it is of basalt." 



224 ILLUSTRATIYE FACTS : 

The industry and tlie sagacity of a succession of 
learned men have so far availed (greatly by aid of the 
threefold inscription^ of the Rosetta stone) as that the 
history of Egypt, up to a very remote age, has been 
recovered, and has been carried to its place, so as 
to synchronize with that of the surrounding nations. 
Every such conque&t, or, as we may call it, inroad upon 
the dark regions of bygone ages, gives a further 
confidence to our belief in the general trustworthiness 
of ancient written history. The ancient historians 
were indeed sometimes misinformed, or perhaps negli- 
gent in putting together their materials ; nevertheless, 
on the whole, they have acquitted themselves as honest 
and intelligent witnesses. 

In ascending the north-west staircase, we must not 
fail to notice several framed and glazed specimens of 
Egyptian writing, which enliven the walls. These 
manuscripts are on the Egyptian papyrus, the texture 
of the material in several instances being quite dis- 
cernible. These should be looked at as furnishing the 
best possible illustration of the statements already 
made in general terms (Chapter Y.). What we have 
there spoken of may here be (not handled indeed, 
but) seen. 

It will now be time to bring our visit to the Museum 
to a close, lest we should be allured by its multifarious 
treasm-es — the memorials of all ages, to wander too far 
from our proper subject. Yet a glance -must be had at 
the manuscripts that are exposed to view in cases in 
the saloons on the ea&tern side of the Museum. These 



THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 225 

manuscripts, to some of whicli we must hereafter make 
a reference, bring under tlie eye all those varieties of 
material, of decoration, and of character as to the 
writing, which already have been briefly mentioned. 
Among them we may find samples of the writer's art, 
and of the art of the writer's brother — the decorator, 
as seen in the illuminations ; some of them are in the 
highest degree sumptuous and magnificent; others are 
more business-like : — a few that have held their integrity 
as books through sixteen hundred years, and many, 
during a thousand years. The summers and the 
winters — times of war and devastation — times of peace : 
— years of narrow risks from spoliation, conflagration, 
barbarian recklessness; and centuries, perhaps, when, 
throughout noiseless days and nights not a breath, 
not a hand, moved the dust that was always coming 
to its long rest upon the cover ! So it has been that 
a safe transmission of the inestimable records of mind 
has had place, notwithstanding the mischances, the 
storms, the violences, the ignorance, and the neglects, 
of so many years. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

FACTS EELATINa TO THE CONSERVATION, AND LATE 
EECOVERY, OF SOME ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS. 

Some of the most ancient, and the most valuable of the 
manuscripts which, at present enrich the British Museum, 
have been very lately acquired, being the product of the 
researches of learned travellers in Egypt, and in the 
islands of the ^ggean Sea, and the countries bordering 
upon it. These researches and these journeys have 
been undertaken expressly for the purpose, and with the 
hope of discovering, and of bringing away, some of those- 
literary treasures which were known, or believed, to 
lie neglected, and almost forgotten, in the now dilapi- 
dated monasteries of Egypt and Greece. This hope 
bas, to some extent, been realized, and these labours 
rewarded ; as we may now briefly mention. 

The desolate region which stretches away far to the 
west on the parallel of the Delta of the Nile, bears the 
marks of having been, at some remote period, and to a 
great extent, covered with water. The remains of this 
dried-up sea still appear, as small lakes, filling the cavities 
among the rugged hills that skirt the desert toward the 
valley of the Mle. Upon the margins of these lakes 
is found the Natron, which may be called natural salt- 



EECOVEEY OF ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS. 227 

soap, and whence, also, large quantities of pure nitre are 
obtained. These lakes have received their designation 
:from this natural product. 

The district, Nitria, is frequently mentioned by 
ancient authors ; as by Strabo (Book xvii.) and by 
Pliny (Book xxxi. 46), and again by the Church 
writers of the fourth and following centuries ; especially 
by those of them who speak of the monastic institutions 
of their own times. Around these dreary waters the monks 
of that time established themselves in great numbers ; 
— so many, indeed, that the emperor Valens, thinking 
that he could find a more useful employment for them 
than that of reciting the Psalter, enlisted as many as 
five thousand of them in his legions. But here, notwith- 
standing disturbances of this kind, these recluses con- 
tinued to find a refuge from the world, and its tempta- 
tions — or so they thought ; and here, by the aid of 
grants from some of the better-minded of the emperors, 
or of opulent and religious persons, many religious 
houses were constructed ; some of them being of ample 
dimensions, and so built as to be capable of resisting the 
attacks of the marauders of the desert; and as their 
precincts included spacious gardens, they might, for 
lengths of time, support the frugal life of their inmates, 
even if besieged. 

As to these establishments,* we find incidental notices 
of them sufficient to assure us that, in some, if not in 
all of them, the copying of books afforded occupation to 

* I have lately brouglit forward some facts of this kind, relating to 
an abbot of a Nitrian monastery. Essays, &c. ; NiLUS. 

Q2 



228 PEESEEVATION AND 

a class of tlieir inmates ; and that this was the fact, we 
now have evidence in the results of the researches above 
referred to. In sdme instances there has been enough 
of continuous life in a decaying monastery, even though 
the building may seem to be little better than a huge 
ruin, to maintain the ^' Copying-room" in some activity. 
In others, where a score of monks, or even fewer, have 
slumbered away their term of years, they have yet retained 
a vague traditionary belief in the value of the manu- 
scripts which they knew to lie, in heaps, in some cell or 
vault, never visited, by themselves. In some cases the 
books, which had been huddled away from the library 
in a moment of danger, when an enemy was under the 
walls, have remained — safe and forgotten, in their con- 
cealment — perhaps for centu.ries. Thus it has been that — 
by the intellectual activity of one age, by the slumbering 
or the inert industry of the next period, and at length, 
by the utter mindlessness of centuries — the precious 
products of the ancient world have been conserved for 
our use in this age. May we not well notice and 
admire that providential interposition which, in these 
varying and precarious modes, has made us the inhe- 
ritors of the wealth of the remotest times ! 

Among those modern travellers who have prosecuted 
these researches, one of the most eminent is the learned 
TischendoriF, whose labours in the field of Biblical 
criticism have become known to all readers in that 
line. This accomplished traveller directed his attention 
especially to the monasteries of the Natron Lakes. He 
visited them by joining himself to a caravan proceeding 



EECOVEEY OF ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS. 229 

from Cairo to the Italian settlement, Castello Cibara. — 
*' Shortly after daybreak," he says, ^' we saw in the 
distance upon the left, in the middle of the Desert, a 
lofty stone wall, and still further on, a second. These 
were two of the Coptic monasteries. Presently after- 
wards one of the salt lakes glittered in the distance, 
with its obscure reddish blue waters, and a flock of 
flamingoes sprung out of its reeds. Upon the right was 
the Castello Cibara ; in the background the low Libyan 
hills formed a dark-red border to the whole scene. 
About nine in the morning we reached our destination, 
and I found in the midst of the Desert a hospitable 
hearth." What follows, although not closely related to 
our immediate subject, is not very remotely connected 
with it ; and a few sentences further may be cited. 

" In the afternoon we made an excursion to the fields 
and lakes of nitre. What a singular scene! In the 
midst of this sandy waste, where uniformity is rarely 
interrupted by grass or shrubs, there are extensive dis- 
tricts where nitre springs from the earth like crystallized 
fruits. One thinks he sees a wild, overgrown with moss, 
weeds, and shrubs, thickly covered with hoar frost. And 
to imagine this winter scene beneath the fervid heat of 
an Egyptian sun, will give some idea of the strangeness 
of its aspect. 

" The existence of this nitre upon the sandy surface 

is caused by the evaporation of the lakes The 

nitre lakes themselves, six in number, situated in a 
spacious valley, between two rows of low sandhills, 
presented a pleasing contrast, in their dark blue and 



230 PRESEEVATION AND 

red colours, to tlie dull hues of the sand There 

are four Coptic monasteries at the distance of a few* 
leagues apart. Euins and monasteries, and heaps of 
rubbish, I observed scattered in great numbers through- 
out the district. I was told that there were formerlj 
about three hundred Coptic monasteries in this deserts 
. . . Both externally and internally, these monasteries 
closely resemble one another. Sometimes square, at 
others in the form of a parallelogram, they are enclosed 
by walls tolerably high, and usually about one hundred 
feet long. From their centre a few palms frequently 
peer forth, for every monastery has a small garden 
within its circuit, and is also furnished with a tower,, 
slightly elevated above the walls, and containing a 
small bell. . . . Within the walls are seen nothing but 
old and dilapidated ruins, amongst which the monks 
find a habitation. The tower I have just described is 
insulated from the body of the monastery, and approach- 
able only by means of a drawbridge supported on 
chains, oflfering thus an asylum against enemies, who 
may have mastered the monastery. This tower com- 
mands the entrance. The interior consists of a chapel, 
a well, a mill, an oven, and a store-room, all required in 
the event of a long siege, and the apartment assigned 
to the library. . . . Here and there, in the mural struc- 
ture of the entrances to the cells and chapelries, we 
obtain a glimpse of the fragment of a marble pillar, or 
of a frieze, or some similar decoration. Thus has the 
sordid present been built out of the splendour and 
grandeur of the past." 



EECOVERY OF ANCIENT MANUSCEIPTS. 231 

The scattered fragmentary remains of the architec- 
tural magnificence of a remote age may properly he 
regarded as so many attestations of those incidental 
notices of these same establishments which occur in the 
writers of that age ; and thus it is that the literary 
evidence, touching the decaying and almost forgotten 
ancient manuscripts that have lately been dragged forth 
from their concealments, is found to consist well with 
the visible history of the structure wherein they have 
been so long conserved. 

The learned traveller from whose journal the above 
citations have been made, had been anticipated in his 
search for manuscripts by several European scholars ; 
and therefore it was little that he found available for 
his immediate purpose — the collation of manuscripts of 
the New Testament. What we are just now concerned 
with are those characteristics of Oriental stagnation and 
motionless decay, and of monastic persistence, which 
have been the very means of ensuring an undisturbed 
custody of literary treasures through the stormy passage 
of many centuries. The decrepit inmates of these 
ruins cherish the traditions of a more stirring time, and 
they are aided in doing so by the pictures of the saints 
and founders of those times. Some of these pictures are 
manifestly of great antiquity, and they have been con- 
served, with reverential regard, by each successive series 
of abbots and monks. Thus says Tischendorff : — 

" The chief pictorial representations, in all the four 
monasteries (those visited by him), were those of St. 
Macarius _and St. George. In the third, which bears 



232 PEESEEVATION AND 

.the name of the Syrian, or the Virgin of the Syrians, 
St. Ephraim (Ephrem Syrus, whose voluminous writings 
are extant) is held in high honour. A tamarind- tree 
was there shown me, which had miraculously sprouted 
forth from the staff of St. Ephraim, who, upon entering 
the chapel, had stuck it into the ground outside. In the 
second, St. Ambeschun was represented as the patron. 
In the fourth, hesides St. George, St. Theodore was 
represented on horseback, with the vanquished dragon 
"beneath his feet." 

In speaking of the main object of his journey, the 
author says : — 

" The special locality set apart for the library (in 
these buildings) is the tower chamber, which is acces- 
sible only by means of the drawbridge. No spot in the 
monastery could be safer from the visits of the frater- 
nity than this. Here are seen (I speak of the first 
monastery) the manuscripts heaped indiscriminately 
together. Lying on the ground, or thrown into large 
baskets, beneath masses of dust, are found innumerable 
fragments of old, torn, and destroyed manuscripts. I 
saw nothing Greek ; all was either Coptic, or Arabic ; 
and in the third monastery I found some Syriac, toge- 
ther with a couple of leaves of Ethiopic. The majority 
of the MSS. are liturgical, though many are Biblical. 
From the fourth monastery (presently to be men- 
tioned) the English have recently acquired an import- 
ant collection of several hundred manuscripts for the 
British Museum, and that at a very small cost. The 
other monasteries contain certainly nothing of much 



EECOVERY OF ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS. 233 

consequence ; yet mucli might be found to reward the 
labour of the search. The monks themselves under- 
stand extremely little about the matter. Not one 
among them, probably, is acquainted with Coptic, and 
they merely read mechanically the lessons of their 
ritual. The Arabic of the olden MSS. but few can 
read. Indeed, it is not easy to say what these monks 
know beyond the routine of their ordinary church ser- 
vice. Still their excessive suspicion renders it extremely 
difficult to induce them to produce their manuscripts, 
in spite of the extreme penury which surrounds them. 
Possibly they are controlled by the mandate of their 
patriarch. For my own part, I made a most lucky dis- 
covery of a multitude of Coptic parchment sheets of 
the sixth and seventh centuries, already half destroyed, 
and completely buried beneath a mass of dust. These 
were given to me without hesitation; but I paid for 
the discovery by severe pains in the throat, produced by 

the dust I had raised in the excessive heat The 

monks (taught at length to think much of the value of 
their literary treasures) are too much accustomed to the 
visits and to the gold of the English." 

Among these " English " whose visits and whose gold 
have spoiled the good monks of the Egyptian desert, 
one of the most noted is the Hon. Eobert Curzon, jun., 
whose entertaining volume, published about ten years 
ago, has brought his amusing adventures to the know- 
ledge of most people who read at all. Notwithstanding 
the notoriety of this distinguished traveller's discoveries 
and his successes in the desert, it would be an omission 



234 PEESERVATION AND 

of what is very pertinent to our argument, not to cite 
a few paragraphs from his account of his " Visits to 
Monasteries in the Levant." 

Preserved — a contradiction, as it may seem — by the 
very means of the neglect and ignorance, the stupidity 
and the recklessness, of those in whose custody they 
have been — the most valuable manuscripts have often 
been converted to the meanest purposes. A learned 
traveller, mentioned by Mr. Curzon, in inquiring for 
manuscripts, was told that there were none in the 
monastery ; but when he entered the choir to be present 
at the service, he saw a double row of long-bearded holy 
fathers, shouting the Kyrie eleison, and each of them 
standing, to save his bare legs from the damp of the 
marble floor, upon a great folio volume, which had been 
removed from the conventual library, and applied to 
purposes of practical utility in the way here mentioned. 
These volumes, some of them highly valuable, this 
traveller was allowed to carry away with him, in ex- 
change for some footstools or hassocks, which he pre- 
sented to the monks. 

Mr. Curzon visited the Levant in 1833, and the fol- 
lowing years : his description of the monasteries near 
the Natron Lakes differs little from that of the traveller 
already cited; but he was fortunate in his researches, 
not merely as a first comer, but as more amply provided 
with the means of purchase, and also perhaps better 
skilled in the sort of diplomacy which the business in 
hand required. The Coptic manuscripts which he found 
in one of these monasteries were most of them lying on 



EECOVERY OF ANCIENT MANUkSCRIPTS. 235 

the floor, but some were in niclies in the stone wall ; 
all except three were on paper. One on parchment 
was a superb manuscript of the Gospels, with commen- 
taries by the early fathers of the Church : two others 
were doing duty as coverings to a couple of large open 
pots or jars, which had contained preserves, long since 
evaporated. '' I was allowed to purchase these vellum 
manuscripts, as they were considered to be useless by 
the monks ; principally, I believe, because there were 
no more preserves in the jars." On the floor was a 
fine Coptic and Arabic dictionary, which the monks 
would not then sell ; but some years afterwards their 
reluctance was overcome by a more liberal offer. He 
prevailed, by aid of a tempting bottle^ to get access to 
a long-forgotten cellar or vault, crammed with manu- 
scripts in all stages of decay, but from which some were 
rescued, and brought away. 

The description given by this traveller, first of the 
desert, and then of the contrast presented by the inte- 
rior of one of these monasteries, will enable us to under- 
stand the attractions of this secluded mode of life to 
many who had retired to it from the troubles of the 
open world. To men of sedentary and literary habits, 
especially, it would be peculiarly attractive ; and these 
would find their happiness through the round of long 
yearSj in the occupation of copying books. Mr. Curzon 
thus presents to us the contrast above mentioned. He 
says : — 

" To those who are not familiar with the aspect of such a 
region as this, it may be well to explain that a desert, such as 



236 PEESEEVATION AND 

that wMch now surrounded me, resembles more than anything 
else, a dusty turnpike road in England, on a hot summer's 
day, extended interminably, both as to length and breadth. 
A country of low rounded hills, the surface of which is com- 
posed entirely of gravel, dust, and stones, will give a good 
idea of the general aspect of a desert. Yet, although parched 
and dreary in the extreme from their vastness and openness, 
there is something grand and sublime in the silence and 
loneliness of these burning plains ; and the wandering tribes 
of Bedouins who inhabit them are seldom content to remain 
long in the narrow enclosed confines of cultivated land. 
There is always a fresh breeze in the desert, except when the 
terrible hot wind blows ; and the air is more elastic and pure 
than where vegetation produces exhalations, which, in all hot 
climates, are more or less heavy and deleterious. The air of 
the desert is always healthy, and no race of men enjoy a 
greater exemption from weakness, sickness, and disease, than 
the children of the desert, who pass their lives in w^andering 
to and fro, in search of the scanty herbage on which their 
flocks are fed, far from the cares and troubles of busy cities, 
and free from the oppression which grinds down the half- 
starved cultivators of the fertile soil of Egypt. 

" Whilst from my elevated position, I looked out on my 
left, upon the mighty desert, on my right how different was 
the scene ! There, below my feet, lay the convent garden, 
in all the fresh luxuriance of tropical vegetation. Tufts 
upon tufts of waving palms overshadowed the immense suc- 
culent leaves of the banana, which in their turn rose out of 
thickets of the pomegranate, rich with its bright green leaves 
and its blossoms of that beautiful and vivid red which is ex- 
celled by few even of the most brilliant flowers of the East. 
These were contrasted with the deep dark green of the caroub 
or locust-tree ; and the yellow apples of the lotus vied with the 
clusters of green limes with their sweet white flowers which 



EECOVEEY OF ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS. 237 

luxuriated in a climate too hot and sultry for the golden 
fruit of the orange, which is not to be met with in the valley 
of the Nile. Flowers and fair branches exhaling rich per- 
fume, and bearing freshness in their very aspect, became more 
beautiful from their contrast to the dreary arid plains out- 
side the convent walls, and this great difference was owing 
solely to there being a well of water in this spot, from which 
a horse or mule was constantly employed to draw the ferti- 
lizing streams which nourished the teeming vegetation of this 
monastic garden." 

If we cany this picture back to those times when 
these Nitrian monasteries were entire in their struc- 
ture, and were complete in ail things proper to a 
well-appointed religious establishment — when imperial 
favour, and the patronage of the wealthy were at the 
command of the community — we may be inclined to 
think that the conventual life might seem enviable 
to many in those times, who were beating about in 
the storms of the open world. No doubt this tranquil 
existence had its charms, even for such as relinquished 
much when they buried themselves in a monastery. 
How attractive must it have been to those who lost 
nothing in making the exchange, and to whom the vow 
of poverty brought with it, in fact, an exemption from 
want, turmoil, labour, misery ! It was thus that these 
establishments kept their cells ever full, and their refec- 
tory halls always furnished with guests. 

The lively writer from whom we have cited the 
passages just above, appears to have received his idea of 
the founders of these religious houses from the absurd 



238 PRESERVATION AND 

legendary literature of a later time. If he had only 
taken the pains j;o acquaint himself with the extant 
writings of some of these good men, he might perhaps 
liave come to think of them more worthily, and then 
lie would have abridged a little the ridicule he heaps 
upon them. As for instance, — the Great Saint of the 
Egyptian monks — St. Macarius, concerning whom, and 
his austerities, there is abundance of childish absur- 
dity in the " Lausiac Memoirs,'* and in other books of 
that class, is, on sufficient evidence, believed to be the 
-author of Homilies and Treatises which indicate a 
sincere and a sober-minded piety, far remote from the 
extravagance and the foolish ostentation with which his 
later biographers have encumbered his better fame. 

It is pertinent to our present argument to say, that the 
existence, in the fourth and following centuries, of works 
so substantially good as are those of this Macarius, 
-and others, is indicative of a far higher condition of the 
Christian community, in those times, than we should 
imagine in looking into the monkish literature of later 
-ages. In truth, it was the substantial merits of many 
of the early Christian writers that gave an impulse to the 
zeal and assiduity of the copyists. We have evidence 
of this in the frequent occurrence of the works of the 
principal writers of the fourth century, among the now 
neglected heaps of the Egyptian, and other monasteries. 
From the same writer — Mr. Curzon, we may cite a 
description of an Abyssinian copying apparatus, and 
library, and the writers there employed — illustrative, as 
it is, of what has been affirmed in the preceding chapters. 



RECOVERY OF ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS. 239 

The library, or consistory, of some Abyssinian monks 
was tlieir refectory also : — 

" On my remarking the number of books which I saw 
around me, the monks seemed proud of their collection, and 
told me that there were not many such libraries as this in 
their country. There were perhaps nearly fifty volumes ; and 
as the entire literature of Abyssinia does not include more 
than double that number of works, I could easily imagine 
that what I saw around me formed a very considerable 
accumulation of manuscripts, considering the barbarous state 
of the country from which they came. The disposition of 
the manuscripts in this library was very original .... The 
room was about twenty-six feet long, twenty wide, and twelve 
high ; the roof was formed of the trunks of palm-trees, across 
whiclT reeds were laid, which supported the mass of earth and 
plaster, of which the terrace-roof was composed. The interior 
of the walls was plastered white with lime ; the windows, at 
a good height from the ground, were unglazed, but were 
defended with bars of iron-wood, or some other hard wood ; 
the door opened into the garden, and its lock, which was of 
wood also, was of that peculiar construction which has been 
used in Egypt from time immemorial. A wooden shelf was 
carried in the Egyptian style round the walls, at the height 
of the top of the door ; and on this shelf stood sundry platters, 
bottles, and dishes for the use of the community. Underneath 
the shelf various long wooden pegs projected from the wall; 
they were each about a foot and a half long, and on them 
hung the Abyssinian manuscripts, of which this curious 
library was entirely composed. 

" The books of Abyssinia are bound in the usual way, 
sometimes in red leather, and sometimes in wooden boards, 
which are occasionally elaborately carved in rude and coarse 
devices : they are then enclosed in a case, tied up with 



240 PEESEEVATION AND 

leather thongs; to this case is attached a strap for the 
convenience of carrying the vohime over the shoulders, and 
by these straps the books were hung to the wooden pegs, 
three or four on a peg, or more if the books were small : 
their usual size was that of a small, very thick quarto." 

The labour required to write an Abyssinian book, it is 
said, is 

" immense, and sometimes many years are consumed in the 
preparation of a single volume. They are almost all written 
upon skins; the only one not written upon vellum that 
1 have met with is in my possession ; it is on charta bomby- 
cina. The ink which they use is composed of gum, lamp- 
black, and water. It is jet black, and keeps its colour for 
ever. Indeed, in this respect, all oriental inks are infinitely 
superior to ours, and they have the additional advantage of 
not being corrosive or injurious either to the pen or paper. 
Their pen is the reed commonly used in the East, only the 
nib is made sharper than that which is required to write the 
Arabic character. The ink-horn is usually the small end of a 
cow's horn, which is stuck into the ground at the feet of the 
scribe .... seated upon the ground, the square piece of thick 
greasy vellum is held upon the knee, or on the palm of the 
left hand. The Abyssinian alphabet consists of eight times 
twenty-six letters, two hundred and eight characters in all ; 
and these are each written distinctly and separately, like the 
letters of an European printed book. They have no cur- 
sive writing; each letter is therefore painted, as it were, 
with the reed-pen, and as the scribe finishes each, he usually 
makes a horrible face, and gives a triumphant flourish with 
his pen. Thus he goes on letter by letter, and before he gets 
to the end of the first line he is probably in a perspiration, 
from his nervous apprehension of the importance of his 
undertaking. One page is a good day's work ; and when he 



EECOVERY OF ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS. 241 

has done it, he generally, if he is not too stiff, follows the 
custom of all little Arab boys, and swings his head or his 
body from side to side, keeping time in a sort of nasal 
recitative, without the help of which it would seem that few 
can read even a chapter of the Koran, although they may 
know it by heart." 

The habitudes of Eastern nations undergo so little 
change in the lapse of ages that, probably, these descrip- 
tions of things as they are now, would differ little from 
a similarly graphic account of the same operations, dated 
a thousand years back. Where the arts of life remain in 
their rude state, all those operations which depend upon 
them continue nearly the same. We may infer this 
from the identity of many implements and tools, such 
as are now seen in Museums, with those at present in 
use in the same countries; and the same inference is 
warranted by what we meet with in the illuminations o 
ancient manuscripts, which often exhibit the usages 
and methods of common life; just as we see those of 
China displayed in the decorations of its potteries, and 
its screens. 

" The paint-brush used by the illuminators of Egypt is 
made by chewing the end of a reed till it is reduced to fila- 
ments, and then nibbling it into a proper form : the paint- 
brushes of the ancient Egyptians were made in the same way ; 
and excellent brooms for common purposes are made at 
Cairo by beating the thick end of a palm-branch till the 
fibres are separated from the pith; the part above, which is 
not beaten, becoming the handle of the broom. The Abys- 
sinian having nibbled and chewed his reed till he thinks 
it will do, proceeds to fill up the spaces between the inked 

R 



242 PEESEEVATION AND 

outlines with his colours ; . . . . the colours are mixed up with 
the yolk of an egg, and the numerous mistakes and slips 
of the brush are corrected by a wipe from a wet finger 
or thumb, which is generally kept ready in the artist's mouth 
during the operation ; and it is lucky if he does not give it a 
bite in the agony of composition, when, with an unsteady 
hand, the eye of some famous saint is smeared all over 
the nose by an imfortunate swerve of the nibbled reed." 

These descriptions of the oriental literary craft, may 
perhaps fail to bring before us what might have been 
witnessed in the copying-room of a Greek monastery 
a thousand years ago ; but as to the technical part of the 
operation it was not even then in a much higher state of 
efficiency. For it appears that copies executed in what, 
to Europeans, seems the rudest manner — as to apparatus, 
and implements, and accommodation — are often of great 
beauty — the patient skill and adroitness of the scribe 
and artist, who is never hurried in his work, making up 
for the deficiencies of his appointments. 

Mr. Curzon's explorations in these Mtrian monas- 
teries, although not the first that had been made by 
European travellers and scholars, had the effect of draw- 
ing the attention of learned persons afresh towards 
them ; and the result has been to bring to light very many 
literary treasures which otherwise must soon have fallen 
into a state of irrecoverable decay. Of these restored 
treasures, a very remarkable example has just now come 
before the world ; and the reader may inspect it, if he 
has the opportunity to take in hand a sumptuous quarto, 
entitled, " Eemains of a very ancient Eecension of the 



RECOVERY OF ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS. 243 

Four Gospels in Syriac, hitherto unknown in Europe ; 
discovered, edited, and translated by William Cureton, 
D.D., &c., 1858." 

The account which the learned editor gives of this 
volume agrees well with that idea of the course of 
things in the Mtrian monasteries which has been brought 
before us in Mr. Curzon's descriptions of what he found 
there. From his Preface we learn that — 

" The manuscript from which the text of the Fragments 
of the Gospels contained in this volume has been printed, 
was one of those obtained in the year 1842, by Archdeacon 
Tattam, from the Syrian monastery, dedicated to St. Mary 
Deipara, Mother of God, in the valley of the IN^atron lakes. It 
consisted of portions of three ancient copies, bound together 
to form a volume of the Four Gospels, with a few leaves in 
a more recent hand, added to make up the deficiencies." 

A note added to the last leaf of the volume is such as 
is commonly found at the end of similar manuscripts. In 
it the copyist dedicates his labour to the glory of the 
Holy Trinity, and commends himself to the prayers of 
those who may read it — these rendered efficacious through 
the prayers of '' the Mother of God, and of all the saints 
continually." This note bears date in the year 1533 
of the Greek reckoning, which corresponds with the 
year 1221 a.d. The leaf upon which this note occurs, 
and which contains some verses of St. Luke's Gospel, 
is a palimpsest vellum, "■ which was formerly a part 
of a manuscript of the sixth or seventh century, and 
originally contained a portion of the first chapter of 
St. Luke, in Syriac." 

E 2 



244 PEESERVATION AND 

On the first leaf of the same volume, there is a note in 
a more ancient ha«id ; to this effect : — 

" This book belonged to the monk Habibai, who presented 
it to the holy convent of the Church of Deipara, belonging 
to the Syrians in the Desert of Scete. May God, abounding 
in mercies and compassion, for the sake of whose glorious 
name he set apart and gave this spiritual treasure, forgive his 
sins, and pardon his deficiencies, and number him among His 
own elect in the day of the resurrection of his friends, through 
the prayers of all the circle of the saints ! Amen, Amen. — 
Son of the living God, at the hour of Thy judgment, spare the 
sinner who wrote this ! " 

The way in which this volume was put together is 
characteristic of the times in which it was done, and of 
that union of religious feeling and of literary (not heed- 
lessness but) inobservance, which attach to the monastic 
mode of life after it has subsided into its inert and 
mindless condition. Dr. Cureton says that 

" the volume containing the Fragments that are now pub- 
lished, were taken, as it would appear, almost by hazard, 
without any other consideration than that of their being 
of the same size, and then arranged, so as to form a complete 
copy of the Four Gospels. There were several other volumes 
in the Nitrian Library made up in this manner. The person 
who arranged them seems to have had no idea of selecting 
the scattered parts of the same original volume, which had 
fallen to pieces, but merely to have taken the first leaves 
which came to his hand, which would serve to complete a 
copy of the Gospels, and then to have bound them together. 
In this way it came to pass, that parts of three or four 
manuscripts were found mixed up with three or four others, 
written at different times, and by dififerent scribes ; and 



EECOVERY OF ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS. 245 

sometimes, indeed, not even of the same exact size, appa- 
rently without regard to any other circumstance than merely 
to render the context perfect." 

So far as could be done, this intermixture of leaves has 
"been remedied, loj bringing the corresponding portions of 
the same copy again into their original juxta-position, 
so as to constitute continuous copies of several different 
manuscripts. Within the one volume, such as it had 
been obtained from the Nitrian monastery, there were 
included some leaves of thick vellum, apparently tran- 
scribed in the sixth or seventh century, and written in a 
very large, bold hand, with divisions of sections — some 
of very thin and white vellum, in a large hand, in two 
columns, similar to the former; but apparently rather 
older ; and some in a different style and of other dates. 

Dr. Cureton expresses his belief (as to portions at 
least) of what has thus been recovered, that they were 
transcribed in or about the middle of the fifth century ; 
and that they represent a text — especially so far as con- 
cerns the recovered portions of the Gospel of St. Mat- 
thew — which has been unknown to European scholars ; 
and is, therefore, " of the highest importance for the 
critical arrangement of the text of the Gospels." 

The use to be made of this ancient copy is not a 
subject properly belonging to this volume;, but it will 
be well that the reader should bring into his own view 
the highly significant facts that are, as we may say, 
linked together in an instance of this sort. Let us then 
recount them : and we may do so with the more satis- 
faction, inasmuch as they are now so recently made 



246 PRESERVATION AND 

puHic; and becatiae, also, the instance, taken in all its 
circumstances, may stand as fairly representative of very 
many of tliose which constitute the evidence adducible 
in proof of the safe transmission of ancient books to 
modern times. 

The Church writers of the fourth and fifth centuries 
make frequent references to the monastic establishments 
of the Scetic desert.* In these religious houses, well- 
ordered and amply furnished as they were in those 
times, the business of copying books was a principal 
occupation of such of the recluses as were inclined by 
their habits and tastes to pursue it. There are notices 
of these establishments from time to time, down to the 
Mahometan era; when, although some of the monas- 
teries were dismantled or plundered, more of them were 
treated indulgently, or even reverentially, by the Arabian 
conquerors. Several Saracenic writers mention the Ni- 
trian monasteries in a style of oriental encomium. With 
varying fortunes, the principal of them — that especially 
of St. Mary Deipara — maintained their existence, and 
were, at times, even in a flourishing condition, during 
what are called the Dark Ages. Great additions were 
made to the libraries, and particularly in the class 
of Syriac and Aramaic books, which had been brought 
from similar establishments in Mesopotamia and the 
remoter East. Incidental notices in evidence of the con- 
tinuance, and, to some extent, of what we may call the 
vitality, of four or five of these Mtrian religious houses, 

* These are, Palladius, Eusebius, Socrates, Jerome, Rufinus, Eva- 
grius, Cassian ; and others incideatally. 



RECOVERY OF ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS. 247 

may be collected from tlie writers, in succession, wlio 
refer to Egypt, and to its ecclesiastical affairs — down 
to modern times — or, as we should say, to the revival 
of learning in Europe. An Arabian author of the 
fifteenth century affirms that the monasteries, formerly 
a hundred in number, were, in his time, seven only ; 
but he specifies that of St. Macarius, and speaks of 
it as a fine building, though its occupants were few. 

From about this time, therefore — namely, from the 
fifteenth centmy, and until our own times — these 
ancient structures, with their dosing inhabitants, the 
mindless guardians of whatever they might contain — 
have remained as sepulchres, subjected to no other in- 
vasions or spoliations than those of Time. The dust of 
one year has settled down upon the dust of preceding 
years, in these oven-like vaults, through the tranquil 
lapse of four centuries. Some peculiar circumstances 
have contributed to ensure the preservation of the manu- 
scripts hoarded in these tombs, and these ought to be 
kept in view. Among these are, first, the slumbering 
ignorance of the monks, together with the unknowing 
superstition with which they guard their libraries : 
along with this is the jealousy of the monks toward their 
-abbots ; the brethren always suspecting their superiors 
pf an intention to purloin, and to make a commerce with, 
the books which were held to be the property of the 
community. Again, there is to be noticed a usage of 
the copyists, and of the owners of costly manuscripts — 
namely, that of subjoining a note to the last page of a 
book, imprecating curses upon any one who should dare, 



248 PEESEEVATION AND 

at any distant time, to dispose of, or to alienate the book 
for liis private advantage. Not the least effective of 
these conservative circumstances has been this — that, in 
some instances, the entire contents of a monastic library 
have — in some moment of danger, while an enemy was 
thundering at the gate — been huddled into a cellar or 
a vault, and there covered with rubbish — safe for a hun- 
dred years or more. It was just in this condition that a 
large portion of the manuscripts which are now carefully 
preserved in the British Museum, was discovered by 
those who have lately succeeded in bringing them off. 

In the lapse of these last four centuries, the monas- 
teries of the Egyptian desert have frequently been visited 
by European travellers and men of learning. Among 
these was Robert Huntington, afterwards bishop of 
Baphoe, whose collection of Oriental manuscripts has 
found its home in the Bodleian Library : this visit was in 
the year 1678 or 1679. The celebrated Joseph Simon 
Asseman, in the year 1715, who had been preceded by 
his cousin Elias, examined these collections and brought 
away, to enrich the Vatican, a small number of books 
— Arabic, Coptic, and Syriac. About the same time 
the Jesuit Claude Sicard visited those of the monasteries 
that were still inhabited, and found the books packed in 
chests, covered with dust, and in a neglected condition ; 
they were stowed away in the tower or keep (above 
mentioned) . 

In illustration of what we have said concerning the 
persistence of the monks in refusing to part with their 
books, we may cite the evidence of a traveller — the 



RECOVERY OF ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS. 249 

Sieur Granger, wlio visited tlie Natron monasteries in 
the year 1730. He says, tliat the buildings at that time 
were falling into decay, and the dust destroying the 
hooks and manuscripts, of which the monks made no 
use whatever. Their own patriarch had represented to 
them that the sum which the books would produ.ce would 
be sufficient to enable them to restore their churches 
and to rebuild their cells : but they declared they would 
rather be buried in the ruins. Lord Prudhoe visited 
the monasteries in 1828. After much difficulty he got 
access to a chamber in which was a trap- door, through 
which he " descended, candle in hand, to examine the 
manuscripts, where books and parts of books, and scat- 
tered leaves, in Coptic, Ethiopic, Syriac, and Arabic, 
were lying in a mass, on which," he says, " I stood. . . . 
To appearance it seemed as if, on some sudden emer- 
gency, the whole library had been thrown for security 
down this trap-door, and that they had remained undis- 
turbed in their dust and neglect for some centuries."* 

In this manner it is that we feel our way from cen- 
tury to century, keeping an eye all the way upon those 
remains of a distant time, the safe transmission of which 
is our immediate theme. In this transit we are now 
reaching the shore of the times we live in. Those frag- 
ments of the Gospels which already we have mentioned, 
and many other highly important manuscripts, which 
are now in the British Museum, were obtained at dif- 

* An account in full of these researches appeared in Bo. CLIIL 
of the Quarterly Review (1845), and afterwards in the Edinburgh 
Review. 



250 Preservation and 

ferent times "by Dr. Tattam (Archdeacon of Bedford), 
wlio twice visited Egypt expressly for this purpose. 
In one of these monasteries, in a vault, the manuscripts 
and fragments of books covered the floor, eight inches 
deep, where they had laid, apparently, many years. 
As many as 317 hooks, entire or in part, were then 
purchased, and they safely reached their destination: 
most of them are on vellum; some on paper — all in 
Syriac, Aramaic, or Coptic; and these, with those 
before obtained, made 360 volumes of manuscripts. 
Some of these volumes contain two, three, or four dis- 
tinct works, written at different periods, but bound up 
together: — altogether perhaps containing not fewer than 
a thousand manuscripts — derived from Mesopotamia, 
Syria, and Egypt, and belonging to different times, 
from the fifth to the thirteenth century. In fact^ it 
now appears that a few of them are of a much higher 
antiquity than the fifth century. 

In the course of time, as the Mahometan influence 
extended itself throughout the East, and became more 
and more exclusive and intolerant, the Christian recluses 
of Mesopotamia, Syria, and Arabia gradually retired, 
or were driven westward, bringing with them, when they 
could do so, their books. Thus it was that the monas- 
teries of the Egyptian desert became stored with these 
manuscripts in the languages of the East, and espe- 
cially of Syria and Arabia. 

The separate books of the Old and 'Nqw Testament, 
or fragments of them, abound in these recovered stores. 
Liturgies, and Lives of the Saints, the spurious Gospels 



EECOVEEY OF ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS. 251 

also, and the works of the early Christian writers, to- 
gether with the canons of Councils, are also largely- 
present among them ; and altogether, many additions to 
religious literature, and some few to classic literature, 
have hence accrued. Among these recoveries, in the 
department of Christian literature, we should name the 
three Epistles of St. Ignatius — believed to be the only 
genuine epistles of this father. Fragments also of what 
are termed the Festal Epistles of St. Athanasius, in 
Syriac, have been found in the same manner ; and the 
circumstances attaching to this one instance, as narrated 
by the learned editor, are so characteristic of the times 
and places which we have now in view, that they may 
properly be reported in this place ; the more so because 
the publications in which these accounts first appeared, 
are of a kind rarely coming under the eye of general 
readers. 

It was the custom of the patriarchs — and thus of 
Athanasius, during the forty years of his official life — 
to address a circular-letter each year to his clergy, 
informing them of the day in which the Easter solem- 
nities were to be observed. Nothing more than some 
fragments of these Epistles, in the Greek original, had 
reached modern times. But it is now a Syriac version 
of many of them that has come to light. 

The treasures of Syriac literature obtained by Dr. 
Tattam, in Egypt, as we have already mentioned, were 
deposited in the British Museum : it was a vast mass — 
a chaos of manuscripts and fragments ; there were 
volumes, and parts of volumes, and single sheets, and 



252 PEESEEVATION AND 

torn fragments of sheets, large and small. This mass 
of commingled materials was consigned to tlie care of 
Dr. Cm^eton, as belonging to liis department; and it 
became liis duty to examine, and to report concerning 
the whole — a task which seemed to defy human skill and 
industry. This lahom', which at first appeared to need 
no addition, was, however, afterwards doubled by the 
arrival of another mass, almost equal to the first; for 
the fact had transpired that the monks, who received 
payment as for their entire library, had contrived to hold 
back a large portion of the whole ; which, however, was 
afterwards obtained by means of a further payment. 

A laborious adjustment of these materials — part to 
part — resulted in bringing to light several Syriac ver- 
sions of treatises of which the titles were known, but of 
which the Greek originals have been lost. Among these, 
and claiming to be noticed, are some of the writings of 
Eusebius, the ecclesiastical historian ; and with them the 
Theophania, or " Manifestation of Christ," of which an 
English translation has been published, by the late Dr. 
Lee. The manuscript of this Syriac work appears, by 
dates attached to it, to be not less than fifteen hundred 
years old, and in fact to have been written a few years 
only later than the time of the publication of the 
original treatise. 

A curious circumstance connected with one of these 
ancient manuscripts is mentioned by Dr. Cureton. To 
one of the leaves of this manuscript — midway in the 
volume, there is attached a note to this eiFect : " Behold, 
my brethren, if it should happen that the end of this 



KECOVEEY OF ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS. 253 

ancient book should be torn off and lost, together with 
the writer's subscription and termination^ it was written 
at the end of it thus : viz. that this book was written 
at Orrhoa, a city of Mesopotamia (Edessa), by the 
hands of a man named Jacob, in the year seven hun- 
dred and twenty-three, in the month Tishrin the latter 
it was completed; and agreeably to what was written 
there, I have written also here, without addition, and 
which I wrote in the year one thousand and three 
hundred and ninety-eight of the era of the Greeks." 

These dates, according to our era, correspond with 
the years A.D. 411, for the time of the tra^nscription of 
the volume, and A.D. 1086 for that of the note. What 
this writer anticipated as probable did actually take 
place ; for the end of the sheet containing the original 
note of the copyist had been torn off and lost ; how small 
then appeared the probability that the actual fragment 
should have escaped so many risks of utter destruction, 
and that it should be recovered. Yet so it was ! In 
the mass of fragments which were afterwards obtained, 
and brought to England, there were several bundles, 
promiscuously made up, and consisting of separate 
leaves or parts of leaves, which were in fact the gather- 
ings and sweepings from the floor, after the principal 
volumes had been taken up. 

"One by one," says Dr. Cureton, "I untied the bundles 
(there were about twenty) and diligently and eagerly ex- 
amined their contents. As I opened the fourth I was 
delighted at recognising two pieces belonging to one of the 
leaves of this precious book j in the next I found a third : 



254 PEESEEVATION AND 

and now, reader, if thou hast any love for the records of 
antiquity ; if thou feelest any kindred enthusiasm in such 
pursuits as these j 'if thou hast ever known the satisfaction of 
having a dim expectation gradually brightened into reality, 
and an anxious research rewarded with success, — things that 
but rarely happen to us in this world of disappointment — I 
leave it to thine own imagination to paint the sensations 
which I experienced at that moment, when the loosing of the 
cord of the seventh bundle disclosed to my sight a small 
fragment of beautiful vellum, in a well-known hand, upon 
which I read the following words." 

These words were those of the original copyist, which 
had been copied as above mentioned, and attached to 
another part of the volume, and which fixed its date 
to the time above stated. This note had itself been 
torn, yet enough of it remained entire to verify the facts 
that have been reported. The first sentence of this note 
is written in red, the second in yellow, and the third in 
black. Dr. Cureton thus presents to view the series of 
facts connected with this manuscript ; and the statement 
of them, which we abridge, is quite pertinent to our 
present purpose. It was written in the country which 
was the birth-place of Abraham, the Father of the Faith- 
ful, and the city whose king was the first sovereign who 
embraced Christianity ; it was written in the year of 
our Lord 411. It was subsequently transported to the 
valley of the Ascetics, in Egypt, probably in A.D. 931, 
and presented to the monastery of St. Mary Deipara. 
In A.D. 1086, some person with careful foresight, fearing 
lest the memorial of the transcription of so valuable a 



EECOVERY OF ANCIENT MANUSCEIPTS. 255 

"book should Ibe lost, took tlie precaution to copy it into 
the body of the volume. At what time in the lapse of 
centuries this fear was realized is not known ; hut when 
the volume came to light in 1839, this had taken place ; 
and in that year it was transferred from the solitude 
of the African desert to London. Three years later 
two fragments of it followed it to England ; and in 
1847, other portions were found and restored to their 
places in it ; and then also the transcriber's own notifi- 
cation of the date of his labours was found in a heap of 
fragments^ and was attached to the leaf whence it had 
been torn. Through so many chances, and in traversing 
countries of Asia, Africa, and Europe, it has held its 
way through a period of one thousand four hundred and 
thirty-six years. Here then is an instance in point, 
establishing the fact of the safe transmission of ancient 
books to modern times. 

Other instances, not less striking than this, are 
reported in the pamphlet whence we have derived the 
one here brought forward. One of these is that of a 
palimpsest, u.pon which was discovered the traces of a 
very ancient copy of the Iliad — legible beneath a Syriac 
version of an obscure author. 

The subscriptions of the monastic copyists are 
characteristic of the times, and of the feelings of the 
men to whose assiduity we are indebted for whatever 
we possess of acquaintance with antiquity. The fol- 
lowing may be cited as an instance, and it is one among 
many of a similar kind : — 



256 PRESEEVATION AND 

" This book belongs to Daniel, a secular presbyter and 
visitor of the province of Amida, who gave diligence and 
procured it for the benefit of himself and of those who, 
possessed with the same object of love of divine instruction, 
may approach it, and desire to profit their lives by the truth 
that is in it. But the poor Simeon, presbyter and a recluse, 
who is in the holy convent of my Lord Simeon of Cartamin, 
transcribed it. May every one, therefore, who asks for it, 
that he may read in it, or write from it, for the sake of the 
love of God, pray for him who gave diligence and obtained 
it, and for the scribe, that he may find mercy in the day 
of judgment, like the thief who was on the right hand 
(of the cross), through the prayers of all the saints, and 
more particularly of the holy and glorious and perpetual 
Virgin, the Mother of God, Mary. Amen, and Amen, and 
Amen." 

Another of these subscriptions ends thus : — 

" Whosoever removeth this volume from this same 
mentioned convent, may the anger of the Lord overtake 
him, in this world, and in the next, to all eternity. 
Amen." 

These imprecations were not impotent forms ; for they 
took great hold of the minds and consciences of those 
who had the custody of the literary treasures of each 
monastery ; and the instances are frequent in which a 
religious (we should not call it a superstitious) fear, 
availed to counterbalance the sordid motive to which 
collectors of MSS. made their appeal. Shall we either 
blame or contemn the needy brethren who professed 
their readiness to be buried under the ruins of their 
monasteries rather than violate their consciences by 



EECOVERY OF ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS. 257 

accepting gold for their books ? These scruples — if 
such a word should be used in this instance — have at 
length given way, and Europe — or the learned throughout 
it — will turn to good account the spoils that have been 
thus obtained. 

Just above (p. 253), we have brought forward an 
instance in which we are able, with certainty, to 
track our path from the Printing Press of this very 
year, in following upward the history of a Manuscript 
to the remote age of the copyist by whom it was 
executed. Another instance, varying from this in its 
circumstances, has just now made its long-desired 
appearance. What we refer to is Cardinal Mai's 
edition — in five quarto volumes — of the celebrated 
Vatican Manuscript of the Old and New Testament 
(the former is, of course, the Greek of the Septuagint). 
It has long been known that the Vatican Library 
contained a manuscript of high antiquity, and great 
value ; but which was guarded with so much jealousy 
that a glimpse of it — or, at most, a brief examination of 
a few places in it, was the utmost favour that could be 
obtained from the papal authorities. Several Biblical 
scholars had visited Kome for the express purpose of 
inspecting, or examining, these precious remains ; but 
with little success. One of the last of these — Dr. 
Tregelles — thus describes it : — 

" This MS. is on very thin vellum ; the letters are small 
regularly formed, uncials j three columns are on each page 
(with some exceptions) : the original writer placed neither 
accents nor breathings, but these have been added by a later 
hand ; they are, however, so delicately written, and with ink 

S 



258 PRESERVATION AND 

whicli has so much faded in colour (if indeed it ever were 
thoroughly black), that some who have carefully examined 
the MS. have thought that the accents and breathings were 
not additions to what was originally written. It is, however, 
an established fact, that they did proceed from a later 
corrector: this is proved by microscopic examination, and 
also from their omission in places in which the later hand 
introduced a correction ; and also it may be remarked, that 
if the original copyist had written these fine strokes with the 
same ink as the letters, they would, of course, have faded in 
the same proportion, and thus would now be discernible only 
with difficulty. 

" The appearance of this MS. now is peculiar ; for after 
the older ink had considerably faded, some one took the 
trouble of retouching the letters throughout ; this was 
probably done to make them more legible for actual use. 
When, however, this restorer differed from the original 
copyist in orthography, he left letters untouched ; and 
sometimes, he appears to have corrected the readings, or, at 
least, they are corrected in ink of a similar colour ; and in 
cursive letters. 

" This MS. is void of interpunction ; and the only 
resemblance to it is found in a small space being left 
between the letters where a new section begins. The initial 
letters, as left by the first copyist, are not larger than the rest; 
but a later hand has added a large initial letter in the margin, 
and has erased (wholly or partially) the original initial." 

It is affirmed of tliis Yatican Manuscript, that " its 
antiquity is shown by its palseographic peculiarities, the 
letters even resembling, in many respects, those found 
in the Herculanean Eolls ; the form of the book, the 
six columns at each opening resembling, in appearance, 
not a little a portion of a rolled book ; the uniformity of 



EECOVEEY OP ANCIENT MANUSCEIPTS. 259 

the letters, and the absence of all punctuation:" all 
these points are regarded as indicative of a high 
antiquity. Dr. Tregelles adds that he had just received 
a single skin of an Hebrew roll; and the general effect 
of that portion of a book of the rolled form, when 
looked at by itself, singularly resembles one page of the 

Codex Vaticanus the history of this Hebrew 

fragment is peculiar, for it was found in a dry shaft 
beneath the Mosque of Omar, at Jerusalem-the ancient 
site of the Temple. The three columns contain Genesis 
xxii. l-xxiv. 26. The material is a red skin, prepare 
tor writing on one side only. 

A faithfal edition of this noted manuscript had long 
been looked for by those engaged in the criticism of the 
Scriptures; and this has at length been given to the 
world. During many years, the late Cardinal Mai had 
been engaged in accomplishing this task; and though 
he did not live to see it actually published, he had made 
provisions for its appearance. With what relates to the 
exactness of this edition we have nothing to do in this 
place :-,t is said to be not altogether faultless; but 
perhaps it is as little chargeable with errors as ought to 
be expected, the immensity of the labour in carrying it 
through the press being duly considered. 

The faultiness of the manuscript-i^^ mischances 
and the oversights of the original scribe, are matters 
immediately connected with our subject; and it may be 
proper briefly to refer to them : * iir truth, a knowledge 

S2 



260 PRESEEVATION AND 

of the usual extent of sucli errors, and of the sources of 
tliem, tends decisively to strengthen a reasonable con- 
fidence in the general trustworthiness of the literary 
remains of remote times. So much of human frailty 
attaches to these, as to all other labours of the human 
head and hand, as should exclude a fond or super- 
stitious regard to them; — yet the amount of error 
is far from being enough to shake our confidence in 
the genuineness and integrity of these precious relics of 
antiquity — taken as a whole. 

Some considerable portions of the original copy have, 
in the lapse of ages, been torn away, or lost from it; — 
or in some way they have perished : — as to the deficiency 
at the end, the wanting books may perhaps never have 
been added : — ^ these are the concluding portions of the 
Epistle to the Hebrews, the three Pastoral epistles, and 
the Apocalypse. These chasms have, however, been 
supplied by copyists of a later age. The errors of the 
original copyist are such as must attach to labours of 
this kind, in which the writer either trusts to his eye, in 
looking to his exemplar ; or to his ear, in listening to a 
reader. Each mode has its disadvantages ; in the one 
case, words of similar appearance are easily taken, the 
one for the other, even when the substitution may have 
been productive of an absurd reading ; — for the mind of 
the writer may have gone for a moment — like the fool's 
eyes — to the ends of the earth. In this mode also a 
clause may easily have been omitted, or even an entire 
line dropped out of its place. In the latter mode — when 
a reader dictates, word by word — to the writer, the same 



RECOVERY OF ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS. 261 

miscliances may liave had place; and in addition to 
these, there will be the mishearing s of the scribe, and the 
faulty enunciations of the reader. On the whole, the 
errors are such as indicate, what man at the best is liable 
to — momentary lapses of attention, notwithstanding- 
even a high rate of habitual accuracy, and of conscien- 
tious care ; they are not more than may thus be ac- 
counted for ; and as to the damage thence arising, it is 
quite inconsiderable ; for while one copyist nods, another 
is awake; and as to the Scriptures, the abundance of 
manuscripts, and of quotations, and of ancient versions, is 
such as to reduce the instances of really ambiguous and 
important readings to a very small number ; and of these 
— few as they are— very few affect at all any article of 
our belief, or any moral precept. The general inference is 
this — that, while the aids of erudite criticism are indis- 
pensable, for securing to us the possession of a text — 
the best that may now be possible — no text which it is 
possible at this time to obtain, can deserve that sort of 
superstitious regard with which some religious persons 
would fain look at the Bible in their hand. The 
most faulty text in existence may safely be regarded as 
a true and trustworthy conveyance of the message of 
eternal life ; and also as a true and a trustworthy expres- 
sion of that moral code according to which all actions will 
be judged. Souls will not perish, nor even be endangered, 
through erroneous readings ; nor in any single instance 
will it appear that the conduct and temper that are 
becoming to a Christian will have been tarnished, or in 
any manner made less ornamental, because an ancient 



262 PRESERVATION AND 

transcriber of tlie Gospels or Epistles Las written rjfi€t<;, 
where he ought to have written i^^et?. 

The history and description of several noted ancient 
manuscripts of the Scriptures, similar to that of this 
Vatican Manuscript, might here he brought forward, if 
it were useful to do so ; but, in regard to our present 
purpose, it may be more serviceable to fix the reader's 
attention upon this one instance, and to insist, for a 
moment, upon the value of the facts, of which it is 
a sample. 

We have then before us — ^let us suppose it — now on 
our table — five bulky quarto volumes, printed at Eome 
about fourteen years ago, but just now brought forward. 
These volumes contain the Greek version of the Old 
Testament — ^the Septuagint — and the Greek of the New 
Testament — and the editor informs us that they %re 
printed from a manuscript which has long been stored 
in the Vatican library. This manuscript has in fact 
been seen_, and in part examined, by a succession of 
European scholars, during the course of three centuries 
past ; and a portion of it was long ago given to the world 
in a printed edition. At what time, or in what manner, 
this manuscript came to be where now it is found, is not 
known, nor are these facts of much consequence ; for 
when it is examined by those whose studies and habits 
have made them familiar with literary antiquarian relics 
— those who " by reason of use have their senses exer- 
cised " to judge of things that dificr, such persons, in 
narrowly inspecting the material — the vellum — the ink 
— the form and disposition of the colours — the character 



EECOVERY OF ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS. 263 

of the letters— the juxta-position of words — the species 
of sectional division, as compared with the sectional 
divisions prevalent at different times : — these and other 
minute characteristics heing considered — these skilled 
persons differ little in their judgment as to the date of 
the manuscript, and agree in fixing a time about the 
middle of the fourth century, when it passed from under 
the hand of an assiduous, and, on the whole, a careful 
copyist. We are landed, therefore, let us say — in the 
mid years of that century when Christianity had every- 
where got the ascendancy; or some time during the 
reigns of Constans and Constantius. 

'Now the possession of so large a quantity of very 
costly material— the finest vellum, and the command 
of so much time as must have been employed in exe- 
cuting a careful and uniform copy, in uncial letters, of 
the Old and New Testament, are evidence of the fact 
that the copyist was in a position favourable for accom- 
plishing his task in an efficient manner ; nor can it be 
doubted that he would take proportionate care to select a 
manuscript — as his exemplar — the best he could find. 
Probably he would provide himself with several such 
manuscripts for purposes of collation, in doubtful in- 
stances ; he would seek for the oldest manuscripts that 
might be then obtainable. In supposing so much as 
this, we assume only what it is reasonable to assume. 
But a manuscript which, in the middle of the fourth 
century, would be accounted ancient — we are now think- 
ing of the New Testament— must have been, at the least 
— a hundred and fifty, or two hundred years old. We 



264 PRESEEYATION AND 

have now in our hands a great number of MSS. that 
are undoubtedly more than a thousand years old — two 
hundred years therefore comes far within the range of 
the ordinary longevity of books on vellum. 

Take it as probable that the copyist whose labours 
are before us in the Vatican Manuscript, had on his 
table manuscripts that were two hundred years old, and 
then these will have been executed during the reign of 
Antoninus Pius, and in Egypt probably. But now I have 
on my table what may enable me to form an opinion of 
the value of the manuscripts which the transcriber of 
the Vatican Manuscript had then on his table ; for I have 
before me the voluminous works of the Christian writers 
of that very time — such as Justin Martyr, Tatian, 
Athenagoras, Irenseus, Clement of Alexandria, Hermias, 
Origen, and others : — not to come down to a later time. 
These works have reached modern times through various 
and independent channels ; they have come abroad, 
drawn forth from hiding-places, widely apart. But now 
these various writings abound with quotations from the 
canonical books ; and although these quotations are not 
always exact in the wording, they are mainly identical 
with the text of the Vatican Manuscript. I turn to one of 
the above-named writers — Clemens Alexandrinus. The 
passages in the Old Testament which he either refers 
to explicitly, or quotes verhatim, are so many, that they 
make a list which fills not fewer than twelve folio pages, 
double columns. Now, in turning to the places where 
these citations occur, and in comparing them with the 
Vatican Septuagint, I find them to correspond, word for 



RECOVEEY OF ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS. 265 

word, in a large proportion of instances. Clement, it is 
evident, had before him a Greek version of the Old 
Testament, which was mainly the same as the manuscript 
from which the Vatican MS. was derived. But now, if it 
might be imagined that a modern editor of Clement had 
made alterations in the text, with the view of bring- 
ing these quotations into conformity with. the Vatican 
Septuagint, any such supposition as this is excluded by 
the fact that, in frequent instances, there are variations 
in the wording of quotations ; it hence appears that the 
editor has not done what I might conjecture that he 
would do. Besides, it is not one ancient writer, but 
very many that quote the Old Testament freely, and 
frequently ; sometimes they do so with perfect accuracy, 
sometimes with less care ; but yet they do it so as to 
furnish over-abundant evidence of the fact that the 
Greek version of the Old Testament, such as we now find 
it in the Vatican Manuscript, was familiarly known to, 
and was in the hands of, the Christian community at 
that early time ; — as it had been for centuries before 
that time. 

We have thus adduced a few instances in which the 
history of particular manuscripts may be traced up from 
the present time to a remote age — some a thousand — 
some fourteen hundred years. Many similar instances 
might be brought forward, if it were thought neces- 
sary, or even useful, so to do ; but the reader, if indeed 
he wishes to acquaint himself more fully with facts of 
this class, may easily do so by looking into the catalogues 
that have been published of the manuscripts contained 



266 PEESERVATION, ETC. 

in the principal libraries of Enrope ; or^ not to travel far 
— the Bodleian, Oxford; or that of the British Museum. 
The manuscripts in the Museum are the Cottonian, the 
Harleian, those of the King's Library, Ayscough's, 
Hargrave's, and the Lansdowne MSS., of all which 
collections separate catalogues have been published. 
There are, besides, in the Museum, several collections of 
Oriental manuscripts, and many recent additions, such, 
for instance, as those that have lately been obtained 
from the Mtrian monasteries, and which have been 
mentioned above. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

THE PROCESS OF HISTORIC EVIDENCE EXEMPLIFIED 

IN THE INSTANCE OF HEEODOTUS. 

We have now seen in what way, and liable to what 
conditions, the mass of ancient literature, including the 
Holy Scriptures, has been sent forward through the long 
track of centuries intervening between the times of its 
production and the revival of learning, and the employ- 
ment of the printing-press, in these modern times. 

What I now propose to do is to place before the 
reader — in a single and a very signal instance, the entire 
historic process ; or that method of proceeding by means 
of which we, at this time, may find our way retro- 
gressively upwards, along the high road of history from 
this, our nineteenth century, to the times— four and five 
hundred years before the Christian era. This journey 
is not of less extent than two thousand five hundred 
years, and it brings us to the time of the last of the 
Hebrew prophets. 

A very frequent phrase in historical writings of any 
sort relating to antiquity is this, " Herodotus informs us, 
so and so." Now my questions, in hearing this, are these : 
"This Herodotus, who was he? When did he live? 
What did he write ? and how do I know that the books 
which bear his name on the title-page, were written by 
any su.ch person, or at the time to which they are 



268 METHOD OF HISTOEIC EVIDENCE : 

usually assigned ? And then, supposing tliese questions 
to be answered to my satisfaction, What reason have I 
for believing that the narratives which I find in these 
books are, in the main, true ? How does it appear that 
what I read is history, and is not fiction f 

We select Herodotus as a sample of this process, or 
this method of historic proof, for several reasons : — such as 
these. This Greek writer stands forward as the " Father 
of history ; " he is the earliest of all extant writers of 
this class, excepting those of the Old Testament; his 
writings embrace a great compass of subjects — in fact, 
they give us, in outline or in detail, almost all we know 
of the nations of a remote antiquity. Then there is this 
peculiar circumstance attaching to the writings of this 
author, that, after having been much disparaged in 
modern times, and his credit greatly lowered, he has, 
within a few years, been restored to his place of authority 
by the greater intelligence of recent writers ; and by an 
extension of our knowledge of the countries spoken of 
by him, as to their natural productions, their arts, their 
works, and their history. Of late — and almost every 
year has done something to bring about this result — 
Herodotus has returned to his position ; and his assailants 
and critics have, in consequence, fallen out of repute. 
These writings, therefore, are samples at once of the 
authenticity of ancient history, and of what may be 
called the immortality of historic truth — its resurrection 
to a new life, after a period of entombment. 

To begin at the beginning ; — I will now suppose that 
I have before me several works in English, French, 



HERODOTUS. 269 

German, Italian, Latin, eacli of them purporting to be — • 
'' The History of Herodotus, translated from the Greek." 
In collating these books it becomes evident that thej are 
all derived from some one source. But it may be well to 
give attention to some facts at this stage of our progress. 
We affirm that the Greek text of Herodotus, such 
as it now appears, was extant some time before the pub- 
lication of the earliest printed editions. Ostensible and 
tangible proof of what we here allege, is afforded by 
the existence, at the present time, as we shall presently 
state, in several public libraries, of many manuscript 
copies of the Greek text, which, by the date affixed to 
them, by the character of the writing, by the appear- 
ance of the ink, and material, and by the traditionary 
history of some of them, are clearly attributable to 
different ages, from the tenth century to the fifteenth. 
But now if it were possible to suppose that all these 
copies were derived from one MS. and that one a forgery 
of a late date, an examination and comparison of them, 
and a comparison of the manuscripts with the printed 
editions, will furnish several special demonstrations of 
the point affirmed. In 1474, twenty-eight years hefore 
the appearance of the first printed edition of the Greek 
text, Laurentius Yalla, an Italian scholar, published at 
Yenice a Latin translation of Herodotus, purporting to- 
have been made from the Greek. Now if, in comparing 
this translation with the Greek manuscripts that are 
still extant, it were asked which is the original, the 
Latin or the Greek ? no one acquainted with the struc- 
ture of language could hesitate in declaring for the 



270 METHOD OF HISTORIC EVIDENCE : 

latter ; for in tlie Latin (as in every translation) ellipses 
are supplied, exegetical and connective phrases are 
introduced ; and what is still more decisive, there are 
many passages in the Greek where an obvious and con- 
sistent sense is evidently misunderstood in the Latin ; 
for Valla seems, from all his translations, to have been 
but imperfectly acquainted with the Greek language. 
In such instances the occasion of the translator's error 
may often be detected ; by which means incontestable 
proof is afforded of the fact now supposed to be ques- 
tioned, namely — that the Greek is the original, and the 
Latin the translation. Again: — The Latin, as com- 
pared with the Greek, is deficient in many entire para- 
graphs, and in many single sentences. In the Greek 
these passages are one with the context; but in the 
Latin, the hiatus is either abrupt and apparent, or it 
is concealed by a connective sentence, evidently inserted 
as a link between the disjoined portions of the text. 
Now, when evidence like this is presented, we need not 
lay stress upon the traditionary history of particular 
manuscripts, nor upon their apparent antiquity, nor 
upon the genuineness of the dates affixed to them ; for 
from the facts actually before us, we can draw only one 
inference. Without going further, therefore, we may 
conclude with certainty, that several Greek manuscripts 
of Herodotus were in existence some time before the 
publication of the printed editions ; and by consequence, 
the averments of the first editors are confirmed, who 
declare that they derived their text from manuscripts — 
already known to the learned. 



HEEODOTUS. 271 

The Greek text of Herodotus was, for the first time, 
printed by Minutius Aldus, at Yenice, September, 1502. 
Copies of this beautiful and correct edition, " corrected by 
a collation of many manuscripts," are still extant : — it 
is distinguished by its retention of the forms of the Ionic 
dialect — a proof that the editor followed a pure and 
ancient manuscript, for the Ionic forms are generally 
lost in those copies, the text of which has passed 
through many transcriptions. This edition, with cor- 
rections and notes, was reprinted at Basil, in 1541, and 
again in 1557, by Joachim Camerarius. In 1570 the 
Aldine text of Herodotus was printed at Paris, by 
Henry Stephens, who does not profess himself to have 
collated manuscripts. The title-page declares that the 
books were " ex vetustis exemplaribus recogniti :" but 
in his second edition, Stephens confesses that up to that 
time he had not been able to procure an ancient copy 
by which to correct the text ; he must, therefore, in the 
phrase just quoted, be understood to refer to the manu- 
scripts that were consulted by Aldus. Gr. Jungerman, 
assuming the edition just mentioned as the basis of his 
own, in which however he made, without specification, 
many conjectural emendations, printed the Greek text, at 
Frankfort, in 1608. This was the first edition in which 
the text was divided into sections, as it now appears. 
The London edition, dated 1679, and published under 
favour of the name of the learned Thomas Gale, was 
derived, without acknowledgment, fi:om that of Junger- 
man. Hitherto the editions were only successive 
reprints of the Aldine text; and came, therefore, all 



272 METHOD OF HISTOEIC EVIDENCE : 

from a single source ; but in 1715, an edition of 
Herodotus was published at Leyden, under the care 
of J. Gronovius, wbo collated the former editions with 
some manuscripts before unknown, or not examined. A 
Glasgow edition appeared in 1761 ; and two years later 
that of Wesseling, printed at Amsterdam. Some quo- 
tations from this editor's preface will give the general 
reader a good idea of the method of conducting these 
literary labours, and of the security afforded for the 
purity of the text of ancient authors. Several German 
and Dutch editions have appeared since that of Wes- 
seling ; the most esteemed are those of Borheck, Keiz, 
Schaefer, and Schweighgeuser. Of the laborious care 
bestowed by the learned editors upon these editions, the 
following citations from their Prefaces will give evidence. 
Wesseling says : — 

"^Tlie forms and proprieties of the Ionic dialect I 
have restored, wherever they could be gathered clearly 
from the ancient codices^ and have replaced some read- 
ings which, without cause, had been rejected. Innu- 
merable passages I have relieved from errors, yet very 
rarely on mere conjecture^ and only in those words 
which the genius of the language would not admit ; and 
in many instances have thought it enough just to point 
out the means of amending the text, where it is evi- 
dently corrupted." In quoting this passage from Wes- 
seling, Schweighseuser says, " Neither have we, except 
in a very few places, admitted conjectural emendations 
into the text ; and these only where it was evident that 
all the readings of all the existing copies were cor- 



HEEODOTUS. 273 

rupted; and wliere an emendation presented itself 
wliicli not merely seemed probable, but wliicb was so 
clear and certain as to need no argument in its favour." 
Very judiciously, tliis editor refuses to impute to the 
temerity or ignorance of copyists all the variations from 
the Ionic forms ; since it is evident that Greek writers 
who adopted one of the dialects, allowed themselves the 
liberty of occasionally using the common forms of the 
language : he therefore restores the ionicisms only when 
he has the authority of MkSS. for so doing. Of Wes- 
seling's extreme caution, Schweighgeuser thus expresses 
his opinion : — ■" In this edition, excepting a few errors, 
easily corrected, or some cases which may be open to 
disputation, the learned have nothing to complain of ; 
unless it be, that, in adopting better readings, warranted 
by MSS., as well as in correcting, on probable conjec- 
ture, some places manifestly faulty in all copies, the 
Editor was too timid — so much so, indeed, that many 
approved readings which he might well have admitted 
into the text, he ventured not to adopt. And often he 
preferred to leave, untouched, manifest and gross cor- 
ruptions, rather than to put in their place his own 
emendations, or those of others, though decidedly 
approved by himself. As to conjectural emendations, 
even in those places where all the MSS. are plainly in 
fault, we have seen him, in his preface, ingenuously 
confess that he had rather be thought too cautious, than 
too bold : and who would not esteem, yes and admire, 
rather than condemn, this illustrious man, blaming his 
own timidity in this sort : — " In attempting to restore 

T 



274 METHOD OF HISTOEIC EVIDENCE: 

the language of Herodotus, I have been restrained often 
by more than a due timidity ; but such is my nature." 
This editor, in his preface, states that, having been 
applied to, to superintend a reprint of Wesseling's 
Herodotus, he had declined doing so, unless he should 
be able to obtain, from the French king's library, the 
loan of the MSS. of Herodotus, there preserved : — the 
troubles of the times preventing this, he sought for 
some one, residing at Paris, who would freely under- 
take the irksome and painful toil of collating Wesse- 
ling's text with all those codices ; and at length, by 
means of a learned friend, he met with a young man, a 
native of Greece, who executed the task of comparing 
the text— word by word — with the five principal 
manuscripts in the library, and making a s&parate list 
of the various readings in each. 

From the mass of variations brought before him, the 
office of the editor is to select that one which most 
recommends itself, either by the superior authority of 
the codex in which it appears, or by its particular 
probability, or seeming accordance with the author's 
style or meaning, or with the proprieties of the lan- 
guage. And not seldom it happens that the most 
inferior copies have chanced to preserve an evidently 
genuine reading, where the best have, as plainly, erred. 
— " ISTo MS.," an eminent critic has said, "ought to be 
thought unworthy of being consulted." Yet in cases 
of importance, where there may be room for doubt 
among the existing variations, the canon must be 
obeyed which enjoins that, '' Codices should rather 



HEEODOTUS. 275 

be loeighed than numbered." Although discussions on 
subjects of this kind cannot but seem uninteresting, and 
even trivial to general readers — and perhaps absurd, when 
the gravity and strenuousness with which, sometimes, 
the most minute points are argued, is observed ; yet it 
ought never to be forgotten that the credit, the purity, 
and the consistency of ancient literature, are very greatly 
promoted by the indefatigable zeal of those who devote 
their lives to these learned and unattractive labours , 

But I now look into some of the printed editions. For 
instance, here is a small folio volume, in excellent style, 
as to type, and paper, and execution, printed in Paris, 
MDLXX, and edited by Henry Stephens. I have also 
in hand the edition edited by J. Schweighseuser, in four 
volumes octavo, reprinted in London, 1822; and also a 
more recent edition, namely — that of Professor Gaisford, 
in two volumes octavo. Besides these there are ten 
other editions of the Greek text — German, Dutch, and 
English. I open these several editions, at hazard — say 
at the beginning of the third book — Thalia: I find 
that they correspond, word for word, for some way on ; 
but in the fifth line I find an unimportant variation — one 
form of a word is used instead of another ; and further 
on the order of the words is a little difierent, but the 
sense is the same. Sometimes one particle or expletive is 
used instead of another ; sometimes those expletives 
that barely affect the sense in any way, are omitted. 
Frequently the orthography of proper names is diffe- 
rently given in the different editions. Very rarely are 
these variations of so much importance as would affect 

t2 



276 METHOD OF HISTOEIC EVIDENCE: 

the sense in a translation. But now, from tlie fact of 
the verbal identity of these editions throughout by far 
the larger part of them, and also from the occurrence of 
not infrequent, and yet inconsiderable differences, I infer, 
first — that they have all had a common source in some 
one original exemplar ; and, secondly— that there have 
been many copyings from that first copy ; and that it 
has been in the course of these repetitions^ in which the 
ear, the eye, and the hand of many writers have done 
their part, that these departures from the author's first 
copy have taken place. In a word, the printed editions 
have followed manuscrijyts ; and these have undergone 
those chances, and those mischances which, in the ordi- 
nary course of things^ must attach to a process like this, 
notwithstanding the care and the fidelity of those who 
practise it. 

The next step, then, is to make search for those ancient 
manuscripts, or for some of them, whence these printed 
editions have been derived. About fifteen such manu- 
scripts are now known, and may be inspected in public 
or private libraries. One of the purest of these is pre- 
served in the French King's library (now the Imperial) 
and it is thus described. — It is a parchment in folio, pur- 
chased in 1688, containing the nine books of Herodotus. 
This codex is by far the best of all, and appears to have 
been executed in the 12th century. It is distinguished 
by its uniform retention of the forms of the Ionic 
dialect — an indication of the antiquity and purity of 
the copy from which it was derived. The same library 
contains also several other MSS. of this author, which 



HERODOTUS. 277 

are tlius described — A codex on paper, formerly belong- 
ing to the Colbertine library, containing the nine books 
of Herodotus : in the margin are notes of some value. 
This MS. was executed in 1372. A copy on paper, 
written in the year 1447. The negligence of the copyist 
is, in this instance, much to be complained of, for some- 
times entire phrases are wanting. Yet it contains some 
readings that deserve attention. A MS. on paper, dated 
1474. Besides the nine books of Herodotus, this codex 
contains parts of the works of Isocrates, and Plutarch, 
together with a lexicon of words peculiar to Herodotus. 
A MS., which along with extracts from several Greek 
authors, contains part of the first book of Herodotus, as 
far as c. 87. Although this codex is of late date, the 
extract from Clio appears to have been made from a 
very ancient copy. Some other codices in the same 
library afford also parts of our author's work. There is 
a codex formerly in the Florentine library, which from 
the condition of the parchment, and the antique style of 
the writing, is manifestly of great antiquity. Montfaucon 
assigns it to the tenth century. This codex belongs 
to the same family as that of Askew, and the Medicean. 
Yet neither was it copied from the latter, with which, 
indeed, it might dispute the palm of excellence ; but 
being derived from a more ancient source, it offers 
many approved readings, differing from the Medicean, 
where that is in fault, or where it offers no emendation 
of the common text. This Medicean codex is thus 
described in the Catalogue of the Florentine library : 
'' Herodotus : — a very ancient codex, valuable beyond 



278 METHOD OF HISTORIC EVIDENCE: 

all praise. It is on paper, in quarto, well preserved : 
executed in the tenth century. The titles of the books 
are in uncial letters of gold ; it contains 374 pages." 
This copy was followed with a too superstitious rever- 
ence by Gronovius ; yet being compelled to consult it 
in the public library, and under the eye of the librarian, 
he has not seldom mistaken its readings. A MS. of 
Herodotus, formerly in the library of Archbishop San- 
croft, and afterwards in that of Emmanuel College, Cam- 
bridge, has been deemed of high antiquity, and great 
value. The libraries of Oxford contain also some 
codices of our author, and several are known to be in 
the possession of private persons. " These manuscript 
copies," says Wesseling, " brought to light from various 
places, have not, it is manifest, originated all from one 
source (in modern times). Where the copy followed by 
Yalla is torn or defective, there also the Vienna, the 
Vatican, and the Oxford MSS. are wanting. And in 
what these are remarkable, so is the Florentine. But 
the Medicean MS., that of Cardinal Passio, and of 
Askew, for the most part agree. The three first men- 
tioned, seem to have been derived all from some one 
more ancient parchment, the writer of which, offended 
perhaps at the frequent digressions of the first book, 
very daringly cut them all off; and lest the hiatus 
should seem harsh, he skilfully fitted the parts, so as to 
preserve the continuity of the style. The three last, on 
the contrary, were derived from the copy of a transcriber 
better informed, who scrupled to make any needless 
alterations. A great number of the various readings 



HEEODOTUS. 279 

whicli distinguisli tliese MSS. are attributable to tlie 
copyists wlio liave substituted the common forms of the 
language, and words better known, in the place of the 
Ionic forms and of obsolete words." 

All that is of any importance in proof of the genuine- 
ness and integrity of ancient books, is to know that 
there are now in existence several copies, evidently of 
older date than the first printed edition of the author ; 
and that these copies, by their general agreement, and, 
not less so, by their smaller diversities, prove, at once, 
their derivation from the same original, and their long 
distance from that original ; since many of these diver- 
sities are such as could have arisen only from many 
successive transcriptions. Beyond these simple facts, 
the knowledge of codices, and of various readings, is 
interesting to none but editors and critics. 

We may now fairly assume as certain, so much as 
this — that the work before us — mainly such as we now 
have it in our hands, is an ancient work, and that it has 
come down to modern times in that mode of which, in 
the preceding chapters, we have given some account, 
and have adduced several instances. Our next question 
is this — To what age this work ought to be attributed ? 
Or this — When did the author live and write? In 
obtaining an answer to this question, or to these two 
questions — considered as one, we must look to that 
succession of writers, retrogressively examined, who 
mention Herodotus, and his History, who describe it, 
and make quotations from it, or who give summaries of 
its contents. The proper and the most complete proof 



280 METHOD OF HISTOEIC EVIDENCE : 

of the antiquity and genuineness of ancient books, is 
that wliicli is tlius derived from tlieir mutual references 
and quotations. There is an independence in this kind 
of evidence which renders it, when it is precise and 
copious, quite conclusive. It is not the evidence of 
witnesses, who first have "been schooled and cautioned, 
and then brou.ght into court to do their best for the 
party by whom they are summoned ; but it is the 
purely incidental testimony of unconnected persons, 
who, in the pursuit of their particular objects, gather up, 
and present to us, the facts which we were in search of. 
Besides — these facts have a peculiarity, which renders 
^hem eminently capable of furnishing precise and 
conclusive proof. A book is an aggregate of many 
thousand separable parts, each of which, both by the 
thought it contains, and by the choice and arrangement 
of the words, possesses a perfect individuality, such as 
fits it for the purpose of defining or identifying the 
whole to which it belongs ; and if several of these 
definite parts are adduced, the identification is rendered 
the more complete. This kind of definition is moreover 
capable of being multiplied, almost without end ; for each 
writer who quotes a book, having probably a difierent 
object in view, selects a difi'erent set of quotations, yet 
all of them meeting in the same work. We are thus 
furnished with a complicated system of concentric lines, 
which intersect nowhere — but in the book in question. 

Then it is to be remembered that each of these 
quoting v/riters stands himself as the centre of a similar 
system of references, so that the complication of proof 



HERODOTUS. 281 

becomes infinitely intricate, and therefore it is so mucli 
the more conclusive. It is again involved, and so is 
rendered secure, by the occurrence of double or triple 
quotations ; for example — Photius quotes Ctesias — 
quoting Herodotus. The proof of genuineness in the 
instance of a standard author, is by such means as 
these extended, attenuated, and involved in a degree to 
which no other species of evidence makes any approach. 

It hardly needs to be said, that this high degree of 
certainty, resulting from the complication, as well as the 
number of testimonies, belongs only to works that are 
explicitly and frequently quoted by succeeding writers. 
And yet this sort of proof is deemed to be in its nature 
so valid and satisfactory, that a very small portion of it 
is ordinarily admitted as quite sufficient. If, for instance, 
a book is explicitly mentioned only by one or two writers 
of the next age, the evidence is allowed to decide the 
question of genuineness ; unless when there appears 
some positive reasons to justify suspicion. But with 
questionable matters we have not now to do. 

It cannot be thought necessary to adduce separately, 
any proof of the genuineness of the works that are about 
to be cited; since they all possess an established character, 
resting upon evidence of the same kind as that which is 
here displayed in the case of Herodotus. To bring forward 
all this proof, in each instance, would fill volumes. 

We have seen that many manuscript copies of Hero- 
dotus, of which several are still preserved, were extant 
before the first printed editions appeared ; and from a 
comparison of these manuscripts, as well as from the 



282 METHOD OF HISTOEIC EVIDENCE: 

date whicli some of tliem "bear, and from their seeming 
antiquity, it is evident that the work had then been in 
existence much longer than three hundred years; for 
these several manuscripts exhibit, as we have said, in 
their various readings, those minute diversities which 
are found to arise from repeated transcriptions, made by 
copyists in different ages and countries — some of these 
copyists being exact and skilfal, while others were care- 
less and ignorant. This proof of antiquity is more con- 
clusive than that which arises from a mere traditionary 
history of a single manuscript, or from a date affixed to 
a copy ; for the date may be spurious, or the tradition 
may be unauthentic ; but in the various readings we 
have before our eyes a species of decay, which time 
alone could produce. 

It is thus that we have assumed it as certain, that the 
text of this author was extant at least as early as the 
twelfth century. And if it were supposed that we coitld 
not trace the history of these manuscripts higher than 
that time, then we should turn to this other species of 
evidence, namely — that arising from the quotations of a 
series of writers, extending upwards from the age in 
which the history of the manuscripts merges in obscu- 
rity, to the very age of the author. 

The evidence which we adduce for this purpose we 
divide into two portions ; — in the first portion proving — 
that the history of Herodotus was known to the learned 
during a period of a thousand years, from A.D. 1150 to 
A.D. 150. 

Eustathius, archbishop of Thessalonica, flourished 



HERODOTUS. 283 

in the latter part of tlie twelfth centiirj. His Commen- 
taries upon the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer, contain 
many references to Herodotus, that are more or less full 
and precise. Among these, the following afford suf- 
ficient proof of the point we have to establish ; for they 
leave no room to doubt that the History of Hero- 
dotus, as now extant, was in the hands of this learned 
prelate. In the course of these commentaries he says, 
" But Herodotus seems to resemble Pherecydes and 
Hecatseus, who (in writing history) threw aside the 
adornments of the poetic style." Again, " Herodotus 
(Erato 74) says that Nonacris is a city of Arcadia where 
the waters of Styx arise." Again, " Herodotus, that 
sweet writer of the Ionic." Eustathius cites our author 
to illustrate the meaning of the word mitra — girdle or 
turban. On the w^ord phalanx he quotes from the fourth 
book a sentence in which Herodotus calls Pythagoras 
" a man eminent among the Greeks for his intelligence." 
He quotes a passage relative to the Egyptian bread from 
the second book. Again, " Menelaus certainly visited 
those other Ethiopians whom Herodotus describes as 
bordering upon the Egyptians:" he alludes to the account 
given by our author of the sheep sacred to the sun in 
Apollonia. Eustathius quotes Herodotus, in proof that 
the Athenians were of Pelasgian origin. 

Suidas, a learned Byzantine monk, is believed to have 
flourished at the close of the eleventh century. His 
Lexicon contains a brief Life of Herodotus ; besides 
which, there occur under other words, not fewer than 
two hundred incidental references to different parts of 



284 METHOD OF HISTORIC EVIDENCE : 

tlie historj. They are for the most part verbal citations 
of a very exact kind, adduced in illustration of the 
meaning, or the orthography of words. 

Photius, the learned and ambitious patriarch of Con- 
stantinople, belongs to the ninth century. This writer 
has preserved the only portions that remain of the 
Persian and Indian history of Ctesias, who, as we shall 
see, gives a nearly contemporaneous testimony to Hero- 
dotus. The Myriobiblon of Photius consists of notices 
and abridgments of two hundred and eighty works 
which he had read, and it affords therefore much infor- 
mation available in determining questions of literary 
antiquity. Many works were extant in the ninth cen- 
tury — at Constantinople especially, which disappeared 
in the following age ; and Photius, who had free access 
to the extensive libraries of that city, wanted no advan" 
tage which might fit him for the task of reviewing the 
literature of the preceding ages. When therefore he 
quotes and describes a work, and speaks of it confidently 
as having been long known in the world, and generally 
received as a genuine production of the author whose 
name it bears, his evidence carries up the proof to a still 
more remote age ; for no spurious work, recently pro- 
duced, could have been so mentioned by a critic of great 
learning and sound judgment. In the Myriobiblon, 
besides some incidental references to Herodotus, we find 
the following account (Art. 60) of him : — " We have 
perused the nine historical books of Herodotus, bearing 
the names of the Nine Muses. This writer uses the 
Ionic dialect, as Thucydides employs the Attic. He 



HERODOTUS. 285 

admits fabulous accounts, and frequent digressions, 
which give a pleasing flow to the narrative ; though 
indeed this manner of writing violates the strict pro- 
prieties of the historical style, in which the accuracy of 
truth ought not to be obscured by any mixtures of fable, 
nor the end proposed by the author to be long lost sight 
of He begins the history with the reign of Cyrus— the 
first of the Persian kings— narrating his birth, education, 
elevation, and rule ; and he brings it down as far as the 
reign of Xerxes— his expedition against the Athenians, ' 
and his flight. Xerxes was indeed the fourth king from 
Cyrus— Cambyses being the second, and Darius the 
third ; for Smerdes the Mage is not to be reckoned in 
the line of kings, inasmuch as he was an usurper who 
possessed himself of the throne by fraud. With Xerxes, 
the son and successor of Darius, the history closes (the 
close of the war with Greece), nor indeed is it carried 
to the end of his reign ; for Herodotus himself flourished 
in those very times, as Diodorus the Sicilian, and others 
relate, who mention the story that Thucydides, while 
yet a youth, was present with his father when Herodotus 
read his History in public, on which occasion he burst 
into tears ; which being observed by Herodotus, the 
historian turned to the father and said, ' ! Olorus, 
what a son have you, who thus burns with a passion for 
learning!' " 

This description of the work, although concise, is 
abundantly sufficient to prove the existence of the text 
(as now extant) in the age of Photius, whose testimony 
establishes also the fact that it had then been long 



286 METHOD OF HISTOKIC EVIDENCE: 

known and reputed as a genuine production of Herodo- 
tus, while the exceptions made against certain fabulous 
digressions contain an explicit acknowledgment that the 
history was generally received as authentic. 

Stephen of Byzantium, author of a geographical and 
historical lexicon, flourished in the middle of the sixth 
century. He very frequently refers to Herodotus. Art. 
ThuTium, he quotes an epigram relating to him ; and 
under the following words references to him occur : — 
Aharnus, a city, region, and promontory of Pariana, 
which Herodotus in his fourth book, says, is called 
Abaris, Arishe — Herodotus and Jason call it Arista, 
Archandrowpolis, a city of Egypt, according to Herodotus, 
in his second book. Assa, a city near Mount Atho, 
mentioned by Herodotus, in his seventh book. TJiala- 
mancei^ a nation subject to the Persians. Inycum, a 
city of Sicily, called by Herodotus, InycJios, Herodotus 
appears to have been one of the principal au.thorities of 
this writer, and his citations are usually correct. 

Marcellinus, a critic of the sixth century, in his 
"Life of Thucydides," mentions Herodotus descriptively, 
and compares him on many points with his rival. 
Omitting many less direct allusions, the following may 
be mentioned. He commends the impartiality of 
Thucydides, who did not allow his personal wrongs to 
give any colouring to his narrative of facts — a degree of 
magnanimity uncommon, he says, among historians — 
" For even Herodotus, having been slighted by the 
Corinthians, affirms that they fled from the engagement 
at Salamis." Describing the lofty style of Thucydides, 



HERODOTUS. 287 

he compares it witli that of Herodotus, whicli, lie says, 
" is neither lofty like that of the Attic historian, nor 
elegant like that of Xenophon." On the ground of 
authenticity also, he compares the two historians, giving 
the advantage in this respect to the younger ; while he 
charges the former with admitting marvellous tales, 
citing, as an example, the story of Arion and the 
dolphin : and, towards the close, he repeats the incident 
already mentioned, said to have taken place when 
Herodotus read his History in public. 

Procopius, the historian of the reign of Justinian, 
wrote ahout the middle of the sixth century. He cites 
Herodotus in precise terms : — " 'Now Herodotus, the 
Halicarnassian, in the fourth book of his History, says, 
that the earth, though distributed into three portions — 
Africa, Asia, and Europe, is one; and that the Egyptian 
Nile flows between Africa and Asia." (Grothic Wars, 
b. IV.) 

Stoboeus lived a century earlier than the last-named 
writer. In illustration of various ethical topics, he 
collects the sentiments of a multitude of authors, and 
amongst the number, of Herodotus. Short sentences 
from the historian are adduced in four or five places, 
and there is one of some length. 

The Emperor Julian makes several allusions to our 
author : — thus, in his first oration in praise of Con- 
stantine, he says, " Cyrus was called the father, Cam- 
byses the lord of his people." In the exordium of his 
Epistle to the Athenian people, several distinct allusions 
to the history of the Persian invasion occur ; and in the 



288 METHOD OF HISTOEIC EVIDENCE: 

Misopogon tlie story of Solon and Croesus, as related hj 
Herodotus, is distinctly mentioned. In mentioning the 
principal Greek authors (Epist. XLII.), Herodotus is 
included. And in an epistle not now extant, but quoted 
by Suidas (Art. Herodotus), the apostate, as he is there 
called, cites the historian as " the Thurian writer of 
history." 

Hesychius, the Lexicographer, lived in the third 
century. He makes several quotations from our author 
— as thus :-— '' Agatlioergoi — persons discharged from 
the cavalry of Sparta — five every year, as Herodotus 
relates." " Basilees — judges ; according to Herodotus, 
the avengers of wrong." '' Zeira — a zone, according to 
Herodotus." " Canamis, Tiara — the bonnet of the 
Persians, according to Herodotus." Zalmoxis — the 
account given of the Get^, is quoted at length. 

Athengeus, a critic of the second century, quotes 
our author in the following, among other instances : 
^' Herodotus, in his first book, writes that the Persian 
kings drink no water except that which is brought from 
the Choaspian spring at Susa, which is carried for their 
use wherever they travel." " Herodotus, comparing 
the Grecian entertainments with those of the Persians, 
relates that the latter pay a peculiar regard to their 
natal day." ^' Herodotus, in his seventh book, says 
that those Greeks who entertained Xerxes on his way, 
were reduced to such distress, that many of them left 
their homes." " Herodotus relates that Amasis, king 
of Egypt, was accustomed to jest very freely with his 
guests." 



HEEODOTUS. 289 

Longinus, the celebrated secretary of Queen Zenobia, 
quotes our author several times in his treatise on the 
Sublime. "Was Herodotus alone an imitator of Homer ?" 
— the address of Dionysius to the Phocseans is quoted, 
'' Our affairs, lonians ! have reached a crisis— we must 
be free or slaves ;" he quotes with high commendation 
a passage, in which our author describes the course 
of the Nile between Elephantine and Meroe. There is 
a quotation from the first book, also the story of 
Cleomenes in the fifth book is quoted: — '' Cleomenes 
devoured his own flesh." 

Diogenes Laertius, author of the " Lives of the 
Philosophers," brings the line of testimonies up to the 
time above mentioned: he makes the following refe- 
rences to our author. In his Preface, he refers to the 
assertions of Herodotus relative to the Mages, and to 
Xerxes, whom he affirms to have lanced darts at the 
sun, and to have thrown fetters into the sea. In the 
Life of Pythagoras^ a passage is quoted relative to 
Zamolxis, who was worshipped by the Getse. 

It is obvious that if the testimonies which are next to 
be adduced are full and conclusive, they will, in point 
of argument, supersede those which have been already 
brought forward; for if it can be satisfactorily proved 
that the now-existing text of Herodotus was known 
more than two thousand years ago, it cannot be neces- 
sary to prove that it was extant at any intermediate 
period. Nevertheless the above-cited authorities do not 
merely serve the purpose of completing our chain of 
evidence, but they are important in proving that the 

u 



290 METHOD OF HISTORIC EVIDENCE: 

work, far from having been lost sight of in any age, was 
always familiarly known to scholars . "We may therefore 
feel assm-ed that copies were to be found in most libraries 
— that the work was frequently transcribed ; and that, as 
the existing manuscripts indicate, we are not dependent 
upon the accuracy of one or two copyists only, for the 
integrity of the text. 

We have now to show that the history of Herodotus 
w^as in existence, and was known to a succession of 
writers from the age of the writer last mentioned, up to 
his own times — or about B. c. 440. 

A period of six or seven hundred years, ending in 
the second century of the Christian era, includes the 
brightest times, both of Grecian and of the Eoman 
literature. Evidence of the most conclusive kind on all 
questions of literary history may therefore be collected 
in abundance from the writers of those ages. Innumer- 
able quotations from all the principal authors are found 
on the pages of almost every prose writer whose works 
have descended to modern times. The critics and 
historians, especially, furnish abundantly the evidence 
we are in search of. We begin this second series with — 

Pausanias, who, in his historical description of Greece, 
has fi-equent occasion to cite the authority of Herodotus. 
Of these citations the following may be mentioned : — In 
a digression relating to the Ethiopians, he quotes fr'om 
the second, and from the fom'th book ; " For the Nasa- 
mones, whom Herodotus considers as the same with the 
Atlantics, and who are said to know the measure of the 
earth, are called by the Libyans, dwelling in the extreme 



HERODOTUS. 291 

parts of Libya, near Mount Atlas — Loxi." " Agreeably 
to tliis Herodotus tells us that in Scythia shipwrecked 
persons sacrificed bulls to a virgin, called by them Iphi- 
genia, the daughter of Agamemnon." The story of lo 
is referred to : he quotes from Herodotus a prediction of 
the Delphic oracle ; he authenticates a story told by our 
author ; " these particulars as they are accurately related 
by Herodotus, it would be superfluous for me to repeat." 
He refers to the orthography of a name : " and Herodotus 
in his History of Croesus informs us that this Labotas 
was under the guardianship of Lycurgus, who gave 
laws to the Lacedaemonians ; but he calls him. Leohotas.'''' 
Li this form, in fact, the name now stands in the Greek 
text: — minute correspondences of this kind vouch for 
the correct transmission of ancient books. He affirms 
that at T^enarus was to be seen " Arion the harper, 
sitting on a dolphin. And the particulars respecting 
Arion and the dolphin Herodotus relates, as what he 
himself heard, in his account of the Lydian affairs." 
Book X. 32, "As to the name of the city, I know that 
Herodotus, in that part of his History in which he gives 
an account of the irruption of the Persians into Greece, 
differs from what is asserted in the oracles of Bacis." 

Lucian of Samosata devotes some pages to Herodotus, 
whose style he characterises and commends ; and he 
relates particularly the mode adopted by the historian 
for making his work known to the Greeks, so that 
wherever he appeared all might say — That is Herodotus 
who wrote the history of the Persian war in the Ionian 
dialect, and who so gloriously chanted our victories. 

u2 



292 METHOD OF HISTOEIC EVIDENCE: 

Hermogenes, a rlietorician and the contemporary of 
Lucian, gives the following description of the historian's 
style : '^ The diction of Herodotus is pure, easy, and 
perspicuous. Whenever he introduces fables he employs 
a poetic style. His thoughts are just, his language 
graceful and noble. No one excels him in the art of 
describing, after the manner of the poets, the manners 
and characters of his different personages. In many 
places he attains greatness of style, of which the conver-^ 
sation betwixt Xerxes and Artabanus is an example." 

Aulus Gellius, a miscellaneous writer, abounds with 
references to authors of every class. In his Attic: 
Nights, Herodotus is frequently mentioned, as for ex- 
ample — he quotes at length the story of Arion. Again : 
" Yet Herodotus, the historian, affirms, contrary to the 
opinion of almost all, that the Bosphorus or Cimmerian 
Sea is liable to be frozen." There is a verbal quotation 
from the third book, relative to the lioness,, and another, 
of the fable of the Psyllians. 

The evidence of Plutarch is sufficiently ample and 
conclusive to bear alone the whole burden of our argu- 
ment. The writings of Plutarch, having in every age 
enjoyed the highest reputation, have descended to- 
modern times, abundantly authenticated : — among them 
there is a small treatise (if it be genuine, which is 
very questionable) entitled " Of the Malignity of Hero- 
dotus." The historian, in his account of the Persian 
invasion, affirms the conduct of the Boeotians on various 
occasions to have been traitorous and pusillanimous. 
Now Plutarch was a Boeotian, and he felt so keenly the 



HERODOTUS. 293 

infamj attached by Herodotus to his countrymen, that, 
with the hope of wiping out the stain, he endeavoured if 
possible, to destroy the reputation of our author, by 
advancing against him the heavy charge of a malignant 
falsification of facts throughout his history. To effect 
his object, he reviews the entire work, bringing to bear 
upon every assailable point the utmost efforts of his 
critical acuteness, and all the stores of his learning. 
The specific charges advanced against Herodotus in this 
treatise must, to a modern reader, appear for the most 
part, extremely frivolous. So far as they may seem to 
be more serious, they have been fully refuted by several 
critics. But our business, at present, with Plutarch's 
treatise, is to derive from it a proof of the genuineness 
and general authenticity of the work which is the sub- 
ject of our argument. In the first place, then, this trea- 
tise, by its many and exact references to all parts of the 
History, proves beyond a doubt that the Grreek text, as 
now extant, is substantially the same as that read by 
Plutarch—or rather by this writer who assumes his name, 
at the time now in view. In the second place, Plu- 
tarch's tacit acknowledgment of the work as the genuine 
production of Herodotus, may be taken as affording 
alone a sufficient proof of that fact ;— for if it had been 
at all questionable— if any obscurity had rested upon its 
traditionary history, this writer, whose learning was ex- 
tensive, could not have been ignorant of such grounds of 
doubt; nor would he have failed to take the short course 
of denying at once the authenticity of the book. The 
five hundred years which intervened between the times 



294 METHOD OF tllSTOSIC EVIDENCE: 

of Herodotus and of Plutarcli, were ages of uninter- 
rupted and widelj-diffused intelligence and erudition ; — 
mucli more so than tlie last five hundred years of Euro- 
pean history : and Plutarch had more ample means of 
ascertaining the genuineness of the History attributed to 
Herodotus, than a critic of the present day possesses in 
judging of the genuineness of Froissart, or of Abulfeda. 
In the third place, this small treatise yields an implicit 
testimony in support of the general truth of the history 
itself; for in leaving untouched all the main parts of the 
story, and in fixing his criticisms upon minor facts, and 
upon the mere colouring given to the narrative, this 
critic virtually acknowledges that the principal facts are 
unquestionable. It may be affirmed that he has in fact, 
on the whole, rather established the authenticity of the 
History against which he levels his critical weapons, than 
succeeded in destroying its credit. 

Josephus quotes and corrects Herodotus — in the 
Jewish Antiquities; and in his reply to Apion he 
mentions him descriptively more than once, as where 
he enumerates the Greek historians ; a few pages fur- 
ther, he notices the remarkable fact that " neither Hero- 
dotus nor Thucydides nor any of their contemporaries 
make the slightest mention of the Eomans." Pre- 
sently afterwards he quotes Manetho in opposition to 
Herodotus, in his account of Egyptian history : and some 
pages fm*ther, he makes an exact quotation from the 
second book. 

Quintilian compares Herodotus with Thucydides : 
" Herodotus, sweet, bland, and copious." ^' In Herodotus, 



HERODOTUS. 295 

as I think, tliere is always a gentle flow of language." 
" Nor need Herodotns scorn to loQ conjoined witli Livy." 

Strabo, the most learned, exact, and intelligent of the 
ancient geographers, very frequently cites our author, 
upon whose statements he makes some severe criticisms ; 
yet without impugning the general authenticity of the 
History. Art. Halicarnassus. " Among the illustrious 
men born at this place is Herodotus, the historian, who 
is called the Thurian, because he joined himself to a 
colony at that place." " It was not improperly said by 
Herodotus, that the whole of Egypt, at least the Delta, 
was a gift of the river." Strabo refers to the account 
given of the voyage round Africa, attempted by the 
order of Darius. He refers to, and quotes the authority 
of Herodotus, who affirms that at Memphis in Egypt 
there was a temple of ^N^eptune. 

The last-named writer brings our series of testimonies 
up to the commencement of the Christian era. In 
passing up the stream of time, we meet next with — 

Dionysius, the countryman of Herodotus, and author 
of the"Eoman antiquities," and of several critical treatises. 
In one of these, entitled " The Judgment of Ancient 
Writers," and in another, addressed to Cn. Pompey, 
Dionysius gives a minute account of the style, method, 
and comparative merits of our author. In the book on 
composition, he makes a long and literal quotation from 
the first book. In giving the character of Thucydides, 
he thus speaks of Herodotus : — " Herodotus the Hali- 
carnassian, who survived to the time of the Peloponnesian 
War, though born a little before the Persian War, raised 
the style of writing history : nor was it the history of 



296 METHOD OF HISTORIC EVIDENCE: 

one city or nation only that he composed ; "but included 
in Ms work the many and various affairs both of Europe 
and Asia. For beginning with the Lydian kingdom, 
he continues to the Persian War — relates whatever was 
performed by the Greeks and Barbarians during a period 
of 240 years — selecting whatever was most worthy of 
record, and connecting them in a single history; at the 
same time gracing his work with excellencies that had 
been neglected by his predecessors." Several descrip- 
tive commendations of a similar kind might be adduced 
from the critical writings of this author. 

Contemporary with Dionysius, though a few years 
his senior, was Diodorus the Sicilian. This learned and 
laborious historian passes over much of the same ground 
with Herodotus, to whom he makes several allusions. 
In discussing the question relative to the inundations of 
the Nile, he states and controverts the opinion advanced 
by Herodotus on that subject. Further on, he rejects as 
fabulous the accounts given by Herodotus and others of 
the remote history of Egypt, and professes to follow the 
public records of the Egyptian priests ; yet he had before 
eulogised our author as a writer '' without a rival, inde- 
fatigable in his researches, and extensively learned in 
history." Diodorus states the various opinions of writers 
relative to the Median empire, and among these, Herodo- 
tus : " Now Herodotus, who lived in the time of Xerxes, 
affirms that the Assyrians had governed Asia during a 
period of 500 years before it was subjugated by the Medes." 

Our author was. known to the Eoman writers. Cor- 
nelius Nepos evidently follows him in some passages, 
though he professes to adhere chiefly to the authority of 



HERODOTUS. 297 

Theopompus, Thiicydides, and Xenophon. Cicero be- 
stows upon him high commendation in several places, 
declaring that " so far as his knowledge of the Greek 
language permitted him to enjoj it, the eloquence of the 
historian (whom he terms ' the Father of History ') gave 
him the greatest delight:" — that his language " flows 
like an unobstructed river:" — and that " nothing can be 
more sweet than his style." 

Pliny the Elder refers to Herodotus frequently; as 
thus — " If we credit Herodotus, the sea once extended 
beyond Memphis, as far as the mountains of Ethiopia :" 
speaking of the inundation of the Nile, he quotes our 
author — " the river, as Herodotus relates, subsides within 
its banks on the hundredth day after its first rise." 
Passing references occur in many places : — " Herodotus, 
more ancient and a better authority than Juba ; " " He- 
rodotus says that ebony formed part of the tribute ren- 
dered by the Ethiopians to the kings of Persia ; " " this 
author composed (corrected) his History at Thurium in 
Italy, in the 310th year of Eome." 

Scymnus of Chios, of whose writings some fragments 
only remain, professes, in his Description of the Earth, 
to report what " Herodotus has recorded in his History." 
This writer is believed to have flourished in the second 
century before the Christian era. 

Aristotle cites Herodotus as an example of the anti- 
quated, continuous style. " If the works of Herodotus 
were turned into verse, they would not by that means 
become a poem, but would remain a history." In his 
History of Animals he charges our author with an error, 



298 METHOD OF HISTOEIC EVIDENCE: 

in affirming tliat " at tlie siege of Mnus, an eagle was 
seen to drink; " but no such assertion is to be found in 
the works of the historian : probably a passage of some 
other writer was quoted by Aristotle from memory, and 
erroneously attributed to Herodotus ; or possibly he 
quoted some work of this historian which has since 
perished. The ambiguous reply of the Pythian to 
Croesus is quoted, though not explicitly from Herodotus. 
Ctesias, an abstract of whose works is preserved by 
Photius, is very frequently quoted by ancient authors. 
He was a Greek physician, who accompanied the ex- 
pedition led against Artaxerxes by his brother, the 
younger Cyrus. Though a few years younger, he was 
contemporary with Herodotus : his testimony therefore 
brings the series of evidences up to the very time of our 
author. Ctesias, having fallen into the hands of the 
Persians at the battle of Cunaxa, was detained at the 
court of Artaxerxes as physician, during seventeen years ; 
and it seems that, with the hope of recommending him- 
self to the favour of " the great king," and of obtaining 
his own freedom, he undertook to compose a history of 
Persia, with the express and avowed design of impeach- 
ing the authority of Herodotus, whom, in no very cour- 
teous terms, he accuses of many falsifications. The 
jealousy and malice of a little mind are apparent in 
these accusations. Nothing can be much more inane 
than the fragments that are preserved of this author's 
two works — his History of Persia_, and his Indian History; 
yet, though possessing little intrinsic value, they serve 
an important purpose, in furnishing a very explicit 



HERODOTUS. 299 

evidence of tlie genuineness and general autlienticity of 
tlie work wliicli Ctesias laboured to depreciate. If tlie 
account given by Herodotus of Persian affairs liad been 
altogether untrue, liis rival wanted neither the will nor 
the means to expose the imposition. But while, like 
Plutarch, he cavils at minor points, he leaves the sub- 
stance of the narrative uncontradicted. 

Thucydides, the contemporary and rival of Herodotus, 
whose writings are said to have kindled in his young- 
mind the passion for literary distinction, makes only an 
indistinct allusion to the Plistory; yet this allusion is 
such as can hardly be misunderstood. Book I. 22, in 
explaining the principles by which he proposed to be 
guided in writing his History, he glances sarcastically 
at certain writers, who, in narrating events that had 
taken place in remote times, mix fables with truth, and 
who seem to have aimed rather to amuse than to in- 
struct their readers. He then immediately mentions the 
Median war, which forms the principal su.bject of his 
rival's work, and of which that work was the well-known 
record. But if this allusion may not be admitted in 
evidence, our chain of proof is complete without it. 

Citations or allusions similar to these might be brought 
forward almost without number; but every purpose, both 
of illustration and of argument — if argument were needed, 
is accomplished as well by a few as by many. From the 
entire mass of testimonies, if we were to select, for example, 
those of Photius, of Dionysius, and of Diodorus, we have 
proof enough of the genuineness and integrity of the 
work ; for the existence of these testimonies could not be 



300 METHOD OF HISTORIC EVIDENCE: 

accounted for on a contrary supposition, in any reasonable 
manner. And when we find tlie work reflected, as it 
were, more or less distinctly, from almost the entire 
surface of ancient literature, no room is left for doubt. 
The writers of every age, from the time of the author, 
speak of the work as being well known in their times : — 
none of them quote it in any such terms as these, " an 
ancient history, said to have been written by Hero- 
dotus:" — or, " a history which most persons believe to 
be genuine ;" for they all refer to it as a book that was 
in every one's hands. If, therefore, the History had been 
produced in any age subsequent to that of Herodotus, 
the author of any such spurious work must have had 
under his control, for the purpose of interpolation, not 
only a copy of every considerable work that was extant 
in his time, but every copy of every such work : — he 
must in fact have new created the entire mass of books 
existing in the eastern and western world at the time ; 
and he must have destroyed all but his own interpolated 
copies ; otherwise, some copies of some of these works 
would have reached us in which these interpolated 
quotations from Herodotus were wanting. Althou.gli 
such suppositions are extravagant, yet let us attempt to 
realise one or two of them. 

We may imagine then that this History, pretending to 
be an ancient work, was actually produced in the ninth 
century, by some learned monk of Constantinople. On 
this supposition, we must believe that the copyists of 
that time, in all parts of the Greek empire, having been 
gained over by the forger to favour the fraud, issued 



HEEODOTUS. 301 

new and ingeniously interpolated copies of the follow- 
ing authors : — namely, Procopiiis, Stephen, Stoba3US, 
Marcellinus, Julian, Hesychius, Athenseus, Longinus, 
Laertius, Lucian, Hermogenes, Pausanias, Aulus Gel- 
lius, Plutarch, Josephus, Strabo, Dionysius, Diodorus, 
Aristotle, Ctesias, and many others that are not cited 
above. Then to this list must be added m.any works that 
were extant in the ninth century, but since lost. All 
the previously existing copies of these authors must have 
been gathered in, and destroyed; but even this would 
not be enough ; for the Byzantine writers must have 
had the concurrence of the Latin copyists, throughout 
the monasteries of western Europe ; otherwise, the 
works of Cicero, and of Quintilian, and of Pliny, would 
not have contained those references to the History which 
we actually find in them. Now to effect all this, or a 
twentieth part of it, was as impracticable in the middle 
ages, as it would be for us to alter the spots in the 
moon — for the things to be altered were absolutely out 
of the reach of those whom we suppose to have made 
the attempt. 

But as to these supposed interpolations, it was not 
formal sentences, or distinct paragraphs — wedged in 
where they seem to have little fitness, but citations or 
allusions of an incidental kind, proper to the connexion 
in which they occur, and perfectly congruous with the 
text. 

Let it next be supposed that the genuine History of 
Herodotus — referred to as we have seen by earlier 
writers, had perished, or was supposed to have perished, 



302 METHOD OF HISTOEIC EVIDENCE I 

about tlie seventli century ; and that some writer of tlie 
nintli century composed a work which should pass in the 
world for the genuine History. Now, to effect this, he 
must have had in his memory, as he went along, the entire 
body of ancient literature, both Greek and Roman ; or 
otherwise he could not have worked up all the refer- 
ences and quotations of earlier authors, so as to make 
them tally, as we find they do, with his spurious produc- 
tion : and if any of these authors were unknown to him, 
or forgotten, then we should find discrepant quotations 
that could not be verified. Moreover, as the genuine 
work was certainly in existence and widely difiused in 
the sixth century, no writer wishing to make such an 
attempt could think himself secure against the exist- 
ence of some copies of the genuine work, which, if brought 
to light, would at once expose his own to contempt. 

Or if a forgery had been attempted at a time nearer 
to that of the alleged author, then, in proportion as we 
recede from difficulties of one kind, we run upon those 
of another kind. For if, to avoid the absurdity of sup- 
posing that a huge mass of books, scattered through 
many and distant countries, were at once called in, and 
re-issued with the requisite interpolations, we imagine 
that the work was forged at an earlier time, when fewer 
testimonies needed to have been foisted into existing 
books; then we come to a period when learning was 
at its height — at Alexandria — throughout Greece, and 
its colonies — when every fact connected with the history 
of books was familiarly known ; when many large 
libraries existed — when, therefore, no standard work 



HEEODOTUS. 303 

could disappear, or could be supplanted by a spurious 
one; mucli less could a work wbich bad never before 
been beard of, create to itself tbe credit of a book long 
and familiarly known: how could tbe learned in tbe 
east and tbe west be persuaded tbat a work, newly pro- 
duced, bad been in their libraries for a hundred years ? 
Though the knowledge of books is more widely dif- 
fused in modern, than it was in ancient times, yet 
among those who addict themselves to literature, there 
is not now more of erudition, of intelligence, of discri- 
mination, than were displayed in the three or four 
centuries of which the Augustan age formed the centre. 
To issue a voluminous history, and to persuade the 
world that it had been known during the last two 
hundred years, is an attempt not more impracticable in 
the present day, than it would have been in the times 
of Dionysius, of Cicero, of Quintilian, or of Plutarch. 

If we carry our supposition still higher, that is to 
say, till we get free from all the difficulties above- 
mentioned, then we gain nothing. The fact princi- 
pally important as an historical question is granted, 
namely, that the History was actually extant at, or 
very near the time, commonly supposed ; and then the 
only point in dispute is the bare name of the author, 
which, so far as the truth of the history is involved, is 
a question of inferior consequence. Yet let us pursue 
this doubt a step further ;— If Herodotus, the Halicar- 
nassian, were a real person, known in his time as a 
writer, then some self-denying forger made over to this 
Herodotus all the glory of being the autlior of so 
admirable a work ; and this Herodotus accepted the 



304 METHOD OF HISTOEIC EVIDENCE: 

generous fraud, and acted his part to give it credit. 
But if the name and designation be altogether ficti- 
tious — the real author concealing himself; then how 
happened it that the Greeks of that age should speak 
of Herodotus as of a real person whom they had known, 
honoured and rewarded? In preference to any such 
impracticable hypothesis, who would not rather accept as 
true the affirmation which the work bears upon its front? 
But now we take up another supposition. After tracing 
as we have done, the history of the work in question, up 
through a continued series of quotations, in the Greek 
and Latin writers, and obtaining by that means a con- 
clusive proof of its antiquity, we may imagine that there 
is in existence a Persian translation of the History of 
Herodotus, which, by the peculiarities of its style, as 
well as by external evidence, is ascertained to have been 
executed in the time of Artaxerxes. Another transla- 
tion of the same work is then brought forward in the 
language of ancient Carthage, which, except in this 
(supposed) translation, has been long extinct. And there 
is another in the Coptic, or ancient language of Egypt ; 
and another in the Latin, of the time of Plautus and 
Terence. If these several translations had each de- 
scended to modern times, through some independent 
channel, and if each possessed a separate mass of evidence 
in proof of its antiquity ; and if, when collated among 
themselves, and with the Greek original, they were 
found to harmonize, except in those variations which 
must always belong to a translation; then, and in such 
a case, we should possess an instance of that sort of 
redundant demonstration which in fact does belong in 



HERODOTUS. 305 

full to the Jewish and Christian Scriptures ; but to no 
other writings whatever. 

Let it now be granted as possible that a writer of 
a later age, who was a perfect master of the Greek 
language, who possessed an endless fund of various 
learning, and who was gifted in a high degree with the 
imitative faculty, might produce nine books like those 
of Herodotus, which, supposing there were no external 
evidence to contradict the fraud, might pass as genuine. 
To affirm that a forgery such as this is possible, is to 
allow the utmost that our knowledge of the powers of 
the human mind will permit to be granted ; and much 
more than the history of literary forgeries will warrant 
us to suppose : for all the attempts of that sort that 
have been detected, either abound with manifest in- 
congruities ; or if executed by men of learning and 
ability, they have been formed upon a small scale, and 
have excluded, as far as possible, all exact references to 
particular facts. 

But the work before us is of great extent ; its allu- 
sions to particular facts are innumerable, precise, and 
incautious ; its style and dialect are proper to the 
age to which it pretends : — in a word, it is in every 
respect what a genuine production of that age ought to 
be. If then it wxre to be judged of, on the ground of 
internal evidence alone, no scholar could for a moment 
hesitate to decide in favour of its genuineness. The 
reader will recollect that the supposition of a forgery in 
a later age is excluded by the evidence already adduced 
in this chapter. 

X 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

METHOD OF AEGUINa FROM THE GENUINENESS, TO THE 
AUTHENTICITY OF THE HISTORY OF HERODOTUS. 

That the Greek text of Herodotus, such as it now 
appears — small verbal variations only excepted, was 
extant and well known in Greece, at least as early as 
the commencement of the Peloponnesian war (e.g. 431), 
is the conclusion that is warranted by the evidence 
already adduced. It now remains to inquire how far 
this proof of the antiquity and genuineness of the work 
carries with it a proof of the general truth of the 
History. 

In a civilized community, where a free expression 
of opinion is allowed, and where opposing interests 
actually exist, a writer, who professes to compile an 
authentic account of transactions that are still fresh 
in the recollection of the people, can move only within 
certain limits, even if he might wish to misrepresent 
facts. — Circumstances, known only to a few, may be 
falsified — motives may be maligned — actions may be 
exaggerated — wrongs and sufferings may be coloured 
by rhetorical declamation — fair characters may be de- 
famed, and foul ones eulogised : — these are nearly 



HERODOTUS. 307 

the boundaries of falsification. But if personages alto- 
gether fictitious are made the heroes of the story— if 
invasions, battles, sieges, conspiracies, are described 
which never happened-if, in a word, the entire narra- 
tive is a fiction, then it ranks in a different class of pro- 
ductions, nor could it ever gain credit as an authentic 
account of real and recent events. The same evidence, 
therefore, which establishes the existence of an his- 
torical work at a time near to that of the events it 
records, establishes also the general authenticity of the 
narrative;— for the work is not only mentioned by con- 
temporary writers, but it is mentioned as a history. 
This character granted to the book by the author's con- 
temporaries contains, by condensation, the suffrages of 
the whole community. In substance, we hear the people 
of Greece assenting to the historian in relation to those 
pnncipal portions of his narrative, at least, of which 
they were qualified to form an opinion, and relative to 
which no writer would attempt to deceive them. 

Equity demands that we treat an historian con- 
formably with his own professions. When he narrates 
events as well known to his contemporaries as to 
himself, he is not to be considered as sustaining any 
other responsibility than that of telling his story well : 
--m such instances we may ask for proof of his impar- 
tiality, or of the soundness of his judgment, but not of 
his veracity, which is not taxed. But when he relates 
incidents of a private or remote kind ;-when he makes ■ 
a demand upon the confidence of his contemporaries by 
affirming things in relation to which they could not 

x2 



308 GENUINENESS AND AUTHENTICITY: 

generally detect liis misstatements if lie erred; — then, 
and in such cases, we may fairly search for evidence 
bearing upon the historian's character, and circum- 
stances, and his means of information. This is an im- 
portant distinction, never to be lost sight of in reading- 
history; — and the inference it contains is this — that a 
history of public transactions, published while many of 
the actors were still living, and while the events were 
familiarly remembered by a large number of persons, 
and which was commonly received as authentic, must be 
accepted, as to its principal facts, as true, even though 
there should be reason to suspect the impartiality, the 
veracity, or the judgment of the writer ; but if in these 
respects, he is entitled to a common degree of confidence, 
then nothing more than a few errors of inadvertency can, 
with any fairness, be deducted from the narrative. 

Every historical work, therefore, needs to be ana- 
lyzed, and to have its several portions separately esti- 
mated.— Whatever is remote or particular will claim 
our credence according to the opinion we may form of 
the historian's veracity, accuracy, judgment, and his 
means of information ; but the truth of narratives 
relating to events that were matters of notoriety in the 
writer^s time, rests altogether upon a different ground ; 
being necessarily involved in the fact that the work 
was published and accepted as authentic at such or such 
a date. The strength of this inference will best appear 
by examining a particular instance. 

In adherence to the distinction above mentioned, we 
must detach from the History of Herodotus the following 



HERODOTUS. 309 

portions (not as if they were proved to be false, or even 
improbable ; but simply because the truth of them can- 
not be directly infer red from the fact of the genuineness 
of the worh). First — Geographical and antiquarian de- 
scriptions of countries remote from Greece : Secondly 
— The early history of such countries, and indeed the 
early history of Greece itself : Thirdly — Events or con- 
ferences said to have taken place at the Persian court 
during the war with Greece ; and lastly, many single 
incidents, reported to have happened among the Greeks, 
but which rest upon suspicious or insufficient evidence. 
After making deductions of this sort, there will remain — 
all those principal events of the Persian invasion which 
were as well known to thousands of the author's coun- 
trymen and contemporaries as to himself; and in de- 
scribing which his responsibility is that of an author 
only, who is required to digest his materials in the best 
manner he can — not that of a ivitness, called to give 
evidence upon a matter of doubt. 

The leading events which we may accept as vouched 
for by the antiquity and genuineness of the work are 
these — The invasion of Greece by a large Asiatic army, 
about five-and-forty years before the publication of the 
History : — the defeat of that army by the Athenians and 
Platseans on the plains of Marathon : — a second invasion 
of Greece ten years afterwards, by an immense host, 
gathered from many nations:— the desertion of their 
city by the Athenians : — an ineffectual contest with the 
invaders at the pass of Thermopylae : — the occupation 
of Athens by the Persians : — the defeat of the invading 



310 GENUINENESS AND AUTHENTICITY: 

fleet at Salamis : — tlie retreat of tlie Persians, and their 
second advance in the following year, when the destruc- 
tion of Athens was completed ; and — the final overthrow 
of the Asiatic army at Platgea and Mycale. That these 
events actually took place — assuming the History to be 
genuine — will appear if the circumstances of the case 
are examined. 

At the time when, as it has been proved, the History 
of Herodotus was generally known and received as 
authentic, the several states of Greece were marshalled 
under the rival interests of Athens and Sparta ; and an 
intestine war, carried on with the utmost animosity, 
raged, by turns in all parts of this narrow territory. 
Such a period, therefore, was not the time when flagrant 
misrepresentations of recent facts, tending to flatter the 
vanity of one of these rival states, at the expense 
of the honour of others, could be endured, or could 
gain any credit. The Athenians gloried, beyond all 
bounds of modesty, in having, with the assistance of 
the Platseans only, repelled the Median invasion on 
the plains of Marathon. But would this boast have 
been allowed — would the account of the battle given 
by Herodotus have been suflcred to pass without con- 
tradiction by the other states, if no such invasion had 
actually taken place, or if it had been much less for- 
midable than is represented by the historian ; or if the 
other states had in fact been present on the field ? Our 
author affirms that the Lacedaemonians, though fully 
informed of the danger which threatened the inde- 
pendence of Greece, persisted in a scrupulous adherence 



HEEODOTUS. 311 

to their custom of not setting out upon a military ex- 
pedition till after tlie full moon. In the meantime the 
battle took place, and a body of two thousand Lace- 
daemonians, afterwards despatched from Sparta, reached 
the field of battle only time enough to gratify their 
curiosity by a sight of the slaughtered Medes. This 
absence of their allies was ever afterwards made matter 
of arrogant exultation by the Athenians ; and the his- 
torian, in giving his support to their boast, dared the 
contradiction of one half of the people of Greece. 

The second invasion of Greece, conducted by the 
Persian monarch in person, took place ten years after 
the defeat of the first at Marathon ; or about five and 
thirty years before the publication of the History : 
many individuals, therefore, were then living who took 
part in the several battles and engagements ; and every 
remarkable event of the war was then as well known 
and remembered in Greece as are the circumstances of 
the French Eevolution by the people of Europe at the 
present time (1828). 

Our immediate purpose does not demand that we 
should examine the credibility of the description given 
by Herodotus of the Asiatic army ; for even if it were 
proved that the numbers stated by him are exaggerated, 
the principal facts would not be brought into doubt ; 
nor would even the credit due to the historian be much 
impeached ; for in all these particulars he is careful, 
again and again, to remind the reader that he brings 
forward the best accounts he could collect — not vouching 
for their absolute accuracy. That he did avail himself 



312 GENUINENESS AND AUTHENTICITY: 

of authentic documents in compiling this description is 
rendered evident bj the graphic truth and propriety of 
all the particulars. Indeed the picture of the Persian 
army, and of its discipline and movements, is strikingly 
accordant with the known modes of Asiatic warfare. 
The army of Xerxes consisted of a small body of brave 
and well-disciplined troops — Medes, Persians, and Saces, 
which, if it had been ably commanded, and unencum- 
bered, might very probably have succeeded in their 
enterprise ; but being impeded and embarrassed by the 
presence of a vast and disorderly mob of half-savage or 
dissolute attendants, they were, at ever}^ step, surrounded 
by a wide -spreading desolation — more fatal than the 
enemy, which rendered the advance of the army in the 
highest degree difficult, and its retreat desperate. To all 
this, parallel instances may be adduced from almost every 
page of Asiatic history. 

When speaking of the twenty Satrapies of Darius, 
Major E,ennell, in his Essay on the Geography of 
Herodotus, avails himself of the information contained 
in om' author's description of the army of Xerxes, to 
which he attributes a high degree of authority. Xow 
it is evident that, unless Herodotus had possessed 
authentic and accurate documents, it would have been 
impossible for him to have given the consistency of 
truth to two distinct accounts of nations and of people, 
so various and so remote from Greece. " Although," 
says this writer, '' there are some errors in the descrip- 
tion, as there must necessarily be where the subject is 
so very extensive, yet it is on the whole so remarkably 



HERODOTUS. 313 

consistent, that one is surprised liow the Greeks found 
means to acquire so much knowledge respecting so 
distant a part. It is possible that we have been in 
the habit of doing them an injustice, by allowing them 
a less degree of knowledge of the geography of Asia, 
down to the expedition of Alexander, than they really 
possessed ; that is, we have, in some instances, ascribed 
to Alexander, certain geographical discoveries which 
perhaps were made long anterior to his expedition .... 
We shall close the account of the Satrapies, and our 
remarks on the armament of Xerxes, with some ad- 
ditional ones on the general truth of the statement of 
the latter, and on the final object of the expedition. 
Brief as the descriptions in the text are, they contain a 
great variety of information, and furnish a number of 
proofs of the general truth of our author's history ; for 
the descriptions of the dress and weapons of several of 
the remote nations, engaged in the expedition of Xerxes, 
agree with what appears amongst them at this day ; 
which is a strong confirmation of it ; notwithstanding 
that some attempts have been made to ridicule it by 
different writers. Herodotus had conversed with those 
who had seen the dress and weapons of these tribes 
during the invasion ; and therefore we cannot doubt that 
the Indians clothed in cotton, and with bows made of 
reeds (i. e. bamboos), were amongst them : of course, 
that the great king had summoned his vassals and 
allies, generally, to this European war ; a war intended, 
not merely against Greece, but against Europe in gene- 
ral, as appears by the speeches of Xerxes, and other 



314 GENUINENESS AND AUTHENTICITY: 

circumstances Tlie evident cause of the assem- 
blage of so many nations was that the Europeans (as at 
the present day) were deemed so far superior to Asiatics 
as to require a vastly greater number of the latter to 
oppose them. This is no less apparent in the history of 
the wars of Alexander, and of the wars made by Euro- 
peans in the East in modern times. However, we do 
not by any means believe in the numbers described by 
the Greek historians ; because we cannot comprehend, 
from what is seen and known, how such a multitude 
could be provided with food, and their beasts with forage. 
But that the army of Xerxes was great beyond all ex- 
ample, may be readily believed, because it was collected 
from a vastly extended empire, every part of which, as 
well as its allies, furnished a proportion ; and if the 
aggregate had amounted to a moderate number only, it 
would have been nugatory to levy that number through- 
out the whole empire ; and to collect troops from India 
and Ethiopia to attack Greece, when the whole number 
required might be collected in Lower Asia." 

It seems impracticable, from the existing evidence, to 
ascertain how great a deduction ought to be made from 
the calculations of Herodotus, as to the numbers of the 
invading army ; but it is easy to believe that his autho- 
rities, which unquestionably were authentic in what 
relates to the description of the forces, might lead him 
astray, without any fault on his part. Or probably, as 
the numbers exceeded the facilities of common compu- 
tation, some conjectural mode of calculation was adopted 
by the contemporary Greeks, which might easily exceed 



HERODOTUS. 315 

the tmtli. — For example, the length of time occupied by 
the barbarian train in passing certain defiles : — or the 
very fallacious mode of reckoning employed by the 
Persians was perhaps followed : — this, as Herodotus 
describes it, consisted in comiting ten thousand men, 
who were packed in a circle as closely as possible, and 
a fence formed round them : they were then removed, 
and the entire army, in turns, was made to pass within 
the inclosure : the whole was thus counted into ten 
thousands. But how probable is it, that, by the inat- 
tention of the persons who conducted this process, the 
successive packages were less and less dense. — Seven 
thousand men might easily seem to fill the space in 
which ten had been at first crammed. Nor is it at all 
safe to argue a priori on the supposition that so many 
could not have been supported on the march. The 
power which drew a large levy of men from twenty-nine 
nations, might also drain those nations of their grain. 
A vast fleet of flat-bottomed barges attended the army 
along the coast ; and as soon as this fleet was separated 
from it, all the extremities of famine were suflered by the 
retreating host. This armament is not fairly compared 
with those which, in later times, have traversed the con- 
tinent of Asia ; for in these instances the aid of an 
attendant fleet was not available. Without this aid the 
distant movement of five hundred thousand men is 
scarcely practicable ; with it, three or four times that 
number might with little difficulty be led a distance of 
three or six months' march. This important difference 
has not been duly regarded by those who have dis- 



316 GENUINENESS AND AUTHENTICITY: 

CTissed tlie question. If then sucli a deduction from the 
army of Xerxes is made as may readily be accounted 
for from the inaccurate mode of computation employed 
hy the Persians or the Greeks ; and if the attendance 
of so large a fleet of store ships is considered, we may 
well hold Herodotus excused from the charge, either of 
deliberate falsification, or of intended exaggeration. 

If it were alleged that Herodotus discovers an 
inclination on every occasion to place the conduct 
of the Athenians in the most advantageous light, it 
may be replied that, if such a disposition is charged 
upon him, then his substantial impartiality, and the 
authenticity of the narrative are convincingly proved, 
by his allowing to the Spartans the undivided and 
enviable glory of having first encountered the invaders 
at the pass of Thermopylffi. In relating this memorable 
action he affirms that all the allies under the command 
of Leonidas, excepting only a small body of Thebans 
and of Thespians, retired from the pass as soon as 
it was known that they were circumvented by the 
Barbarians ; and he plainly attributes this desertion to 
the prevalence of unsoldier-like fears. This statement 
therefore^like many others in the History — challenged 
contradiction from the parties implicated in the dis- 
honour. 

In recounting the naval engagements which took 
place in the Euboean straits, the historian contents 
himself with affirming that, after a doubtful contest, 
each fleet retired to its station ; and he attributes the 
final success of the Greeks, not so much to their valour 



HERODOTUS. 317 

and skill, as to a divine interposition, which, by a 
violent storm, so far diminished the Persian fleet that 
the two armaments were reduced to an equality. 

The ill success of the Greeks in attempting to oppose 
the advance of the Barbarians at Thermopylse, and the 
losses they had sustained in several naval engagements, 
having reduced them almost to despair, the Athenians, 
thinking it impracticable to defend Attica, abandoned 
their city, and took refuge on board their ships, and in 
the neighbouring islands. The invader therefore was 
allowed, without opposition, to execute his threat — that 
he would retaliate upon the Athenians the burning of 
Sardis. Here then we arrive at a definite fact, which 
may be considered as forming the central point of the 
History. If this fact be established, most of the subor- 
dinate incidents must be admitted to have taken place, 
as they were nothing more than either the proper causes, 
or the effects, of this main event. 

Within so short a period as five and thirty, or forty 
years, it could not be a matter of doubt or controversy 
among the Athenians, or indeed with any of the people 
of Greece, whether Athens had been occupied by a 
foreign army — its halls and temples overthrown or burned 
— its sacred groves cut down, and its surrounding 
gardens and fields devastated. But while several 
thousand citizens were still living, who had attained an 
adult age at the time of the alleged invasion, and while 
the structures of the new city were in their first freshness, 
or were scarcely completed ; and while, if it had actually 
taken place, the marks of this destruction must have 



318 GENUINENESS AND AUTHENTICITY: 

been everywhere apparent, a history is published, and 
is universally applauded, in which this invasion of 
Attica, and this destruction of Athens are particularly 
described. Can then this fact be reconciled with the 
supposition that no such events had really taken place 
—-that these arrogant citizens had never been driven 
from their homes ? Can we believe that, for the sake 
of assuming to themselves the glory of having repelled 
such an invasion, the entire people of Athens would 
have given their assent to a fictitious narrative, which 
every one of them must have known had no foundation 
in truth? or, if such an infatuation had prevailed at 
Athens, would their neighbours — the Corinthians, and 
the Boeotians, have left such a falsehood uncontra- 
dicted ? 

It is evident that, unless a powerful invasion of 
Greece had taken place, Athens — the principal city of 
Greece, could not have been occupied and destroyed ; 
and unless that invasion had been speedily repulsed, 
Athens could not have regained that wealth, and power, 
,and liberty which, on other evidence, it is known to 
have possessed in the first years of the Peloponnesian 
war. Here then, if the truth of the History of Herodotus 
were to be argued, the question must come to its issue. 
If it were denied that such an invasion of Greece 
happened at the time afiirmed by our author, then the 
fact of the general difi'usion, and the high credit, of the 
History of Herodotus, throughout Greece, must be shown 
to consist with that denial. On the other hand, an 
apologist for Herodotus, having established the antiquity 



HEEODOTUS. 319 

and genuineness of tlie work, must not be required, 
either to defend the veracity of the historian, or to 
adduce corroborative evidence in proof of the fact, until 
the difficulty which rests upon the contrary hypothesis 
has been disposed of. 

The account given by Herodotus of the subsequent 
events of the Persian war— that is to say — the defeat of 
the Asiatic fleet at Salamis — the retreat of Xerxes — the 
second occupation of Athens in the following spring by 
the Persians under the command of Mardonius ; and the 
final discomfiture and destruction of the Barbarian army 
at Plat^a and at Mycale, follow of course, as substan- 
tially true, if the preceding facts are established. It 
must however be observed that a peculiar character of 
authenticity belongs to this latter portion of the History: 
for though the issue of the war was indeed highly 
gratifying to the vanity of the Greeks, one would almost 
think that the historian wished, as far as possible, to 
check their exultation, or to balance the vaunts of each 
of the states by some circumstances of dishonour. For 
instance— no veil is drawn over those almost fatal 
contentions for precedency hj which the counsels of the 
confederates were distracted ; nor are the treasons and 
the interested conduct of the chiefs concealed or excused. 
The pusillanimity of some, and the fears of all are 
confessed : indeed so much of infamy or of discredit is 
thrown by Herodotus upon individuals, and upon the 
whole community, that his boldness in publishing such 
statements, and the candour of the Greeks in admitting 
them, are alike worthy of admiration. N"or can we 



320 GENUINENESS AND AUTHENTICITY: 

believe otlierwise tlian that a full conyiction of the 
substantial truth of these statements at once inspired 
the writer with this courage, and compelled his hearers 
to exercise this forbearance. It cannot seem surprising 
that, in later times, some writers, jealous for the honour 
of Greece at large, or of some particular state, should 
attempt to remove these blots, by impugning the credit 
of the historian. Yet even in making this attempt, 
they venture no further than to call in question his 
account of a few particular transactions, or to dispute 
those portions of the vfork which relate to remote times, 
and distant nations. 

We have seen that the history of the Persian inva- 
sion, as given by Herodotus, is, in its main circumstances, 
established by the mere fact that the w^ork was known, 
and had been accepted as authentic, within forty years 
of the events it records. This then is not an instance 
in which the veracity of the historian needs to be vindi- 
cated, or in which our faith in his veracity must be 
dependent upon other evidence. Yet it is natural to 
look around for such other evidence as may be found to 
bear upon the history. We have a good right to sup- 
pose that events of such magnitude as those which 
Herodotus relates, would be mentioned, more or less 
explicitly, by other writers of the same age — whether 
philosophers, poets, orators, or historians. And this in 
fact is the case in the instance before us ; for almost 
every writer — contemporary with Herodotus — whose 
works are extant, makes allusions of a direct or indirect 
kind to the Persian invasion. Some of the authors 



HERODOTUS. 821 

already adduced in proof of the antiquity and genuine- 
ness of the history^ must now "be recalled to give evi- 
dence as to the matter of fact. 

Pindar, the prince of lyric poets, is reported to have 
died at the age of eighty, and was born about B. c. 521, 
and was in mid-life at the time of the Persian in- 
vasion. The odes now extant were recited in Greece 
before the history of Herodotus was composed. The 
subject of these compositions are the praises of the 
victors at the Olympic, the Isthmian, the Pythian, and 
the Nemean games; and in extolling his heroes, the 
poet finds occasion to refer to the glories of the cities 
to which they belonged : they contain therefore many 
allusions to the events of Grecian history ; and as 
these odes were recited at all the great festivals, the 
allusions were such as the mass of the people could 
not fail to understand. This sort of incidental and 
brief notice of public events, intended to kindle the 
enthusiasm of the audience, must of course rest upon 
the knowledge, or the convictions of those to whom 
they were addressed. In the first of the Pythian odes, 
a rapid sketch is given of the principal events of the 
Persian war. — Such defeat as they suffered by the 
Syracusan prince, who, manning the swift ships, with 
the youth, delivered Greece from heavy servitude. — I 
would choose the praise won by the Athenians at Sa- 
lamis : — or I would tell at Sparta the fight near Mount 
Cithseron, in which the Medes with their curved bows 
(dyKvXoTo^oL) were oppressed. — The Median bow as seen 
in the bas-reliefs of Persepolis, is very properly described 

Y 



322 GENUINENESS AND AUTHENTICITY: 

by this epithet — it is very long, and mucli curved, even 
in its extended state. 

These allusions may be explained by referring to 
those places in Herodotus, where it is related, that, 
while Xerxes was advancing towards Greece, the Athe- 
nians and Lacedgemonians sent an embassy to Gelon, 
tyrant of Syracuse, to ask his aid against the Barbarian : 
this he refused to grant, except upon conditions with 
which the Greeks could not comply. Yet he fitted out 
a fleet, and engaged and defeated the Carthagenians, 
commanded by Amilcar, who had been incited by the 
Persians to join in the war upon the Greeks : by this 
victory Greece was delivered from the danger of an 
attack which must have proved fatal to its liberties ; for 
if the Carthagenian fleet had arrived in the Archipelago, 
and had joined the Persians, the Greeks could hardly 
liave withstood so vast a combination. The next allu- 
sion is to the engagement at Salamis, in which the 
Athenians, as Herodotus ^affirms, took the principal 
part : and the last, is to the final defeat of the Bar- 
barians near Plat^a, at the foot of Mount Cithseron. In 
this battle the Spartans were the most distinguished. 
In the fifth Isthmian ode, another allusion to Salamis 
occurs — where men innumerable met their death, as 
by a hail-storm of destruction. 

^schylus, the father of tragedy among the Greeks, 
had reached manhood at the time of the first invasion of 
Greece, and took part in the battle of Marathon : he was 
present also in the 'engagement at Salamis, and again 
at the battle of Platsea. Seven only of his seventy 



HERODOTUS. 323 

tragedies have descended to modern times: — one of 
these is entitled " The Persians." The scene is laid 
at Susa in Persia, and the time supposed is during the 
albsence of Xerxes in Greece. The play is opened by 
a chorus of elders, who discourse anxiously concerning 
the fate of the expedition ; — All Asia is exhausted of 
men : — wives count the days, and mourn the long 
absence of their warrior-consorts — Atossa the queen 
enters dejected, and recounts a portentous dream : — - 
a messenger then arrives from Greece : he reports the 
defeat of the Persian fleet, and the retreat of Xerxes : — 
in relating the particulars, he glances at the circum- 
stances which preceded the engagement at Salamis, as 
mentioned by Herodotus — That a messenger (sent by 
Themistocles) informed Xerxes that the Greeks were 
about to disperse; to prevent which he imprudently 
surrounded them : — an engagement ensued, of which 
Xerxes was a spectator from a neighbouring hill: — 
the Persians are defeated; — those who occupied the 
island (of Psyttalea) were all slain. The army, in 
its retreat, suffers the extremity of cold, hunger, and 
thirst. On hearing this, the queen invokes the shade 
of Darius, which appears. — Atossa repeats the story 
of his son's defeat : — The shade predicts the fatal 
battle of Plataga, and the destruction of the army. 
In the closing scene, Xerxes himself arrives, bewailing 
his misfortunes, and bringing back nothing but an 
empty quiver. The only material point in which ^s- 
chylu3 differs from Herodotus, is in reckoning the 
Greek flest at three hundred, instead of seven hundred 

y2 



324 GENUINENESS AND AUTHENTICITY : 

sail:— this is evidently a poetic deviation from fact, 
intended to enhance the gloiy of the victory. 

Of all the Greek historians, none bears so high a 
character for authenticity and for exactness in matters 
of fact as Thucydides: his impartiality, his laborious 
collection, and his judicious selection of materials, and 
his rejection of whatever seemed to rest on suspicious 
evidence, are apparent on almost every page of the 
history of the Peloponnesian war. This history was 
published about sixty years after the expedition of 
Xerxes. Thucydides had conversed with many of 
those who had taken part in the battles described by 
Herodotus. Many allusions to the events of the Per- 
sian invasion occur in the course of the work, and they 
are all of that kind which is natural, when an historian 
refers to facts which he supposes to be fresh in the 
recollection of his readers. The introductory sections 
of the history contain an outline of Grecian affairs, 
from the earliest times to the commencement of the 
war between Athens and Sparta. In this preliminary 
sketch, the leading circumstances of the invasion, as 
related by Herodotus, are mentioned ; such as — the 
war and conquests of Cyrus and Cambyses — the sub- 
jugation of the Greeks of Asia Minor — the naval power 
of Poly crates, tyrant of Samos — the Median war, the 
reigns of Darius and of Xerxes, and the conduct of 
Themistocles. — The expulsion of the Pisistratidse from 
Greece, the battle between the Medes and the Greeks 
at Marathon, and, ten years afterwards, the second 
invasion of Greece by the Barbarians — the desertion 



* HERODOTUS. 325 

of their city by tlie Athenians, and their taking 
refuge on board their ships. — Not many years after 
the expulsion of the tyrants from Greece, happened 
the battle between the Medes and the Athenians at 
Marathon ; and ten years after that battle, the Bar- 
barians arrived with a great armament, intended to 
reduce the Greeks to bondage. In this imminent 
danger, the Lacedemonians, who were more powerful 
than the other states, took the command in the war. 
The Athenians, as the Medes advanced, having resolved 
to abandon their city, collected all their goods, and 
went on board their ships, and from that time became 
a maritime people. After, by their united efforts, the 
Greeks had repulsed the Barbarians, the several states, 
as well those which fell away from the king, as those 
which had fought with the Greeks, took part, some 
with the Athenians, and some with the Lacedgemo- 
nians. — Again, Thucydides refers to — the late Median 
war — which, he says, was quickly terminated in two 
battles and two naval engagements. The battle of 
Marathon, and the burial of the slain upon the field, are 
afterwards mentioned; and in a funeral oration pro- 
nounced by Pericles (whether really so or not is of 
no consequence to the argument) the exploits of the 
Athenians in repelling the Barbarians are spoken of as 
being too well known to need to be particularized; 
and again, the conflict at ThermopyljB is mentioned ; — 
the battle of Platasa, and the engagement at Artemi- 
sium. The defeat of the Medes, the devastation of 
Athens, and its restoration are narrated. The distance 



S>26 GENUINENESS AND AUTHENTICITY ' 

of time, namelj, fifty years, between the defeat of 
Xerxes, and tlie commencement of the Peloponnesian 
war, is mentioned. — All these actions which took place 
either among the Greeks, or between them and the 
Barbarians, w^ere included within a period of nearly 
fifty years, reckoning from the retreat of Xerxes, to the 
commencement of the present war. 

These, and some other allusions to the events of the 
Persian invasion, coinciding as they do with the more 
ample narrative given by Herodotus, and coming from 
an historian who made it his boast that he admitted 
nothing into his work which was not supported by 
satisfactory evidence, and who, moreover, was disposed 
rather to detract from the credit of his rival, than to 
confirm it, must be held to furnish the most conclusive 
kind of independent testimony. Indeed, the express 
affirmation of Thucydides that Athens was destroyed 
by the Persians, aifords alone a sufficient proof of the 
fact ; for no such affirmation as this could either have 
been made, or tolerated, within sixty years after the 
event, unless it were universally known to be true. 

Lysias the orator, at the early age of fifteen years, 
it is said, accompanied Herodotus and other Athenians 
to Thurium : after a long residence in Italy, he returned 
to Athens, where he distinguished himself by his elo- 
quence. In a funeral oration, pronounced in honour of 
the Athenians who fell in the Corinthian war, he speaks 
of the Persian war. — The king of Asia, unsatisfied 
with his present greatness, and actuated by a boundless 
ambition, prepared an army of 500,000 men, hoping by 



HEEODOTUS. 827 

this mighty force to reduce Europe u.nder his subjec- 
tion With such rapidity was the victory (at 

Marathon) accomplished, that the other states of Greece 
learned by the same messenger the invasion of the 
Persians, and their defeat ; and without the terror of 
danger, felt the pleasure of deliverance. It is not sur- 
prising, then, that such actions, though ancient (about 
eighty years) should still retain the full verdure of glory, 
and remain to succeeding ages the examples and the 

envy of mankind Many causes conspired to 

engage Xerxes, king of Asia, to undertake a second 
expedition against Europe After ten years pre- 
paration, he landed in Europe, with a fleet of 1200 
sail, and such a number of land forces, that it would be 
tedious to recount even the names of those various 

nations by whom he was attended He made a 

journey over land, by joining the Hellespont, and a 
voyage by sea, by dividing Mount Athos. The orator 
then briefly mentions the engagements at Artemisium 
and Thermopylae, the abandonment of Athens, and the 
removal of the citizens to Salamis : — their city was 
deserted, their temples burnt or demolished, their 
country laid waste. 

Isocrates flourished a few years later than Lysias, 
yet he was contemporary with Herodotus. One of his 
orations, pronounced in praise of the Athenians, contains 
passages to the same eflect. They first (the Athenians) 
signalized their courage against the troops of Darius (at 

Marathon) The Persians, a short time after 

renewed their attempts, and Xerxes himself, forsaking 



328 GENUINENESS AND AUTHENTICITY: 

his palace and his pleasures, ventured to become a 
general. At the head of all Asia he formed the most 
towering designs. For who, though inclined to exagge- 
ration, can come up to the reality ? The conquest of 
Greece appeared to him an object below his ambition. — 
Designing to effect something beyond human power, he 
projected that enterprise, so celebrated, of making his 
army sail through the land, and march over the sea ; 
and he carried this idea into execution by piercing 
Mount Athos, and by throwing a bridge over the Hel- 
lespont. Against a monarch so proud and enterprising, 
who had executed such vast designs, and who com- 
manded so many armies, the Lacedsemonians, dividing 
the danger with Athens, drew themselves up at Ther- 
mopylge. With a thousand of their own troops, and a 
small body of their allies, they determined in that 
narrow pass to resist the progress of all his land forces. 
While our ancestors (the Athenians of the last genera- 
tion) sailed with sixty galleys to Artemisium, and 
expected the whole fleet of the Barbarians. . . . The 
Lacedgemonians perished to a man ; but the Athenians 
conquered the fleet they had undertaken to oppose. 
Their allies were dispirited. The Peloponnesians, occu- 
pied for their own safety, had begun to fortify the 
Isthmus. . . . The enemy approached Attica with a 
fleet of twelve hundred sail, and with land forces innu- 
merable. . . . The Athenians assembled all the inhabi- 
tants of their city, and transported them into the 
neighbouring island. — And where shall we find more 
generous lovers of Greece than those who in its defence 



HEEODOTUS. 329 

abandoned their abodes, suffered their city to be ravaged, 
tlieir altars to be violated, tlieir temples to be burned to 
the ground, and all the terrors of war to rage in their 
native country ? . . . Athens, even in her misfortunes^ 
furnished more ships for the sea-fight off Salamis, which 
was to decide the fate of Greece, than all the other 
states together ; and there is no one, I believe, so unjust 
as to deny, that by our victory in that engagement the, 
war was terminated, and the danger removed. 

Ctesias, as we have seen, affords a testimony con- 
clusive in favour of the antiquity of the history attri- 
buted to Herodotus. We have now to adduce his evidence 
on the subject of the Persian invasion — reminding the 
reader that his history of Persia was composed with the 
avowed design of invalidating the account given by 
Herodotus of Persian affairs : he thus speaks of the 
expedition of Xerxes : — Xerxes, having collected a 
Persian army, consisting, besides the chariots of war, 
of eight hundred thousand men, and a thousand galleys, 
led them into Greece by a bridge which he had caused, 
to be constructed at Abydos. It was then that he 
was accosted by Demaratus the Lacedsemonian, who 
passed with him into Europe, and who endeavoured to 
dissuade the king from attacking the Lacedaemonians. 
Xerxes arriving at the pass of Thermopylae, placed ten 
thousand men under the command of Artapanus, who 
there engaged Leonidas — chief of the Lacedaemonians. 
In this conflict a great slaughter of the Persians took 
place, while not more than three or four of the Lacedae- 
monians were slain. After this Xerxes sent twenty 



330 GENUINENESS AND AUTHENTICITY: 

thousand men to the field ; these also were overcome, 
and though driven to fight bj blows, were still van- 
quished. The next day he sent forward fifty thousand 
men; but as these also failed in their attack, he no 
longer attempted to fight. Thorax the Thessalian, and 
Calliades and Timaphernes, princes of the Trachinians, 
were then present (in the Persian camp) with their 
troops. These, with Demaratus, and Hegias of Ephe- 
sus, Xerxes called into his presence, and from them he 
learned that the Lacedsemonians could by no means be 
vanquished unless they were surrounded and attacked 
on all sides. Forty thousand Persians were therefore 
despatched under the command of these two Trachinian 
leaders, who traversing a difiicult path, came behind 
the Lacedasmonians. Thus surrounded, they fought 
valiantly, and perished to a man. Again Xerxes sent 
an army of one hundred and twenty thousand men, 
commanded by Mardonius, against the Platseans : it was 
the Thebans who incited the king against the Platseans. 
Mardonius was met by Pausanias the Lacedaemonian, 
at the head of not more than three hundred Spartans — 
one thousand of the people of the country — and about six 
thousand from the other cities. The Persian army 
being vanquished, Mardonius fled from the field 
wounded. This same Mardonius was sent by Xerxes 
to pillage the temple of Apollo ; but to the great grief 
of the king, perished in the attempt by a hail-storm. 

Xerxes next advanced with his army to Athens ; 
but the Athenians having fitted out one hundred and 
ten galleys, fled to the island of Salamis : he therefore 



HEEODOTUS. 331 

entered the deserted city, and burned it, except only the 
citadel, which was defended by a few who remained; 
but they retiring by night, he burned that also. The 
king then advancing to the narrowest part of Attica, 
called Heracleum, began to construct a mole towards 
Salamis, with the intention of marching his army on to 
the island. But by the advice of Themistocles the 
Athenian, and of Aristides, a body of Cretan archers 
was brought up to obstruct the work. A naval engage- 
ment then took place between the Persians and the 
Greeks, the former having more than a thousand ships, 
commanded by Onophas — the latter seven hundred. Yet 
the Greeks conquered, and the Persians lost five hundred 
ships. Xerxes himself, by the counsel and contrivance 
of Themistocles and Aristides, fled : — not fewer than 
one hundred and twenty thousand men having perished 
on the side of the Persians in the several actions. 
Passages to this effect occur in the Myriobiblon of 
Photius. 

In those particulars in which this account of the 
Persian invasion differs from that of our author, no one 
who carefully compares the two, can hesitate to give his 
confidence to Herodotus rather than to Ctesias, not only 
because he lived some years nearer to the events ; but 
because his narrative displays more judgment, more con- 
sistency, and more probability, and is also better sup- 
ported by other evidence. It is enough for our present 
purpose that this writer affirms the same great events to 
have taken place — that the Persian king led an immense 
army into Greece, where he met a total defeat. 



332 GENUINENESS AND AUTHENTICITY : 

Of the autliors whom we have cited, the first two — 
Pindar and iEschylus, had reached maturity at the time 
of the Persian invasion, and were personally concerned 
in its events, and composed the works to which we have 
referred while Herodotus was yet a youth. Though 
poets, they represent the victories of the Greeks as 
recent facts, well known to their hearers, and the 
slightest allusion to which was enough to kindle the 
national enthusiasm. The other writers — Thucydides, 
Lysias, Isocrates, and Ctesias, were also contemporary 
with Herodotus; and two of them were his professed 
rivals. From their evidence it is apparent that the 
events of the Persian invasion were matters of common 
knowledge and conversation, and were the themes of 
writers in every class among the Greeks, in the very 
age in which they are said to have taken place. 

It follows therefore that the historian of these trans- 
actions is not to be regarded as if he were the author of 
a narrative for the truth of which he is individually 
responsible, and in which we cannot confide until Tve 
have proof of his veracity. He is rather the collector of 
facts that were universally acknowledged by his con- 
temporaries : — and the truth of the history rests upon 
the fact that it was published, and was accepted, while 
the individuals to whom the events were known were 
still living. 

If we look to the Greek writers of the next and of the 
following age, we find the same general facts affirmed or 
alluded to — orators, poets, and historians, hold the same 
language, and assume it as certain that their ancestors 



Herodotus. 333 

gloriously repulsed an innumerable Asiatic army. But 
Iiistorical proof of a traditionary kind differs essentially 
from that which it is just now our intention to display; 
we therefore do not bring it forward in the present 
instance. 

In a preceding chapter (XV.) we have referred to 
the mass of evidence, confirmatory of the loritten testi- 
mony of ancient Historians, which might be brought 
forward from the treasures of the British Museum. In 
many instances the general truthfulness of Herodotus, 
and his exactness also, are vouched for in the most 
substantial and convincing manner, by objects of va- 
rious kinds, to which the reader may have access any 
day in that vast collection. Yet in relation to such 
mstances there may be room for a cautionary remark; 
and it is of this kind. — 

There is a tendency in the mind to relieve itself from 
the labour of thinhing, by accepting, without inquiry, 
any sort of proof that offers itself to the senses— to the 
eye and to the touch. In this manner we may fall into 
the habit of forgetting, or of neglecting, the direct and 
proper evidence of tvritten and authentic testimony, 
while we are occupied with that which seems, although 
It may not be so in reality, to be more convincing, 
or to be less precarious ; as for example : after giving 
attention to the evidence that has been adduced in the 
preceding chapters, we may feel assured of the fact— 
that the Greeks and Persians did fight on the plains of 
Marathon. There is then shown to us a seal, which, on 
good evidence, we know to have been picked up upon 



334 GENUINENESS AND AUTHENTICITY I 

the very spot tliat still bears that name in Greece: 
the device upon this gem is manifestly Persian ; — the 
winged lions are almost a copy of the bas-reliefs still 
existing on several ruins in Persia : we conclude there- 
fore that this relic of antiquity belonged to a chief of 
the Persian army, and we accept it as a palpable proof 
of the truth of the historian's narrative : and though 
that narrative thus gains, in our view, a confirmation, it 
does so by losing something of its proper weight ; and 
we are afterwards inclined to think, that if the tangible 
proof were withdrawn, the written proof would stand 
less firmly than it did before. 

Then again, in relying upon the evidence of gems, 
inscriptions, or sculptures, not merely as illustrations of 
history, but as proofs of its truth, we may sometimes 
substitute the worse kind of evidence for the better. — 
The relics of ancient art, in very many instances, derive 
their meaning, and draw their historic value from the 
concurrent testimony of written history : the entire proof 
is a product of the two taken together. Then it must 
not be forgotten that the traditionary history of the 
relic is often of doubtful authenticity— resting perhaps 
upon the word of those who had a commodity of inde- 
finite value to sell ; — or the workmanship may be of a 
later age than the antiquary is willing to admit ; — or the 
inscription may have been placed by authority out of 
the reach of that opinion to which an historian is always 
amenable. An arrogant republic, or a vain-glorious 
tyrant, might, without fear, stamp bold lies upon coins, 
or engTave impudent untruths upon the entablatures of 



HERODOTUS. 335 

temples ; and the brazen or the marlble record may 
receive from the modern antiquary a degree of respect 
which it never won from contemporaries. Herodotus 
mentions some instances of this kind. An intelligent 
inquirer into the truth of remote facts will usually give 
more confidence to the explicit assertions of one with 
whose character and qualifications he is in some measure 
acquainted, than he does to positive averments that 
come from a party altogether unknown. iJ^ow an his- 
torian is a person concerning whose veracity, discretion, 
and intentions we have the means of forming our own 
opinion ; but in admitting the evidence of inscriptions 
and coins, we receive a testimony — knowing perhaps 
nothing of the witness. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

EXAMPLES OF IMPEEFECT HISTOEICAL EVIDENCE :^~ 
HEEODOTUS. 

The object of the preceding pages has been to display, 
in its several parts, that chain of evidence, by means of 
which a high degree of certainty in matters of antiquity 
is attainable. And it appears that there are cases in 
which the proof of remote facts rests, as it were, in 
our own hands, so that, irrespectively of the veracity, 
or accuracy, or impartiality of the witnesses, our assent 
is demanded on the ground of the constancy of the 
laws of the social system. In such cases, a consideration 
of distance of time does not enter into the argument; 
for the proof remains from age to age unimpaired; or 
rather, we are carried by this proof up to the times 
of the events in question, and are now as competent 
to judge of the validity of the evidence as we could 
have been if we had lived in that age. 

The real difference between this absolute proof and 
every other sort of historical evidence, will be best ex- 
hibited by adducing some instances of a different kind ; 
and in taking our examples from the same author — 
Herodotus, we place both kinds of evidence upon the 
same level, so far as the personal qualities and the 
merits of the historian are concerned in the argument. 

The distinctive character of all such historical evidence 



HEEODOTUS. 337 

as ought to be called imperfect, is this — that it comes 
to us through some medium, upon the trustworthiness of 
which we must more or less implicitly rely. Ordinarily, 
this medium is the veracity, or the accuracy — the learn- 
ing, or the impartiality, of the historian. In such in- 
stances the immediate jproof stands beyond our reach ; 
and instead of being able to handle and inspect it for 
ourselves, we can only inspect it at a distance, and, by 
the best means in our power, estimate its probable value. 
This secondary evidence may indeed sometimes rise 
almost to absolute certainty; in other cases it may 
possess scarcely an atom of real weight. The first book 
of Herodotus will furnish examples of both sorts, and 
some in every degree between the two extremes. 

In the introductory sections of his history, Herodotus 
refers to those mutual aggTCSsions which were ordinarily 
assigned by the authors of his times as the origin of the 
animosity which had so long raged between the Greeks 
and the people of Asia : thus he mentions the abduction 
of lo from Argos by the Phoenicians — of Europa from 
Tyre — of Medea from Colchis, and of Helen from 
Sparta; which last act of violence produced, he says, 
the Trojan war, and which the Persians, as he affirms, 
were wont to allege as a perpetual justification of every 
enterprise they might attempt against the Greeks. 

These events took place — if at all — from thirteen to 
eight hundred years before the time of Herodotus : the 
last of them, the Trojan war, may well be regarded as 
substantially true on the authority of the poems of 
Homer, which bear the character of history too strongly 

Z 



SS8 IMPEEFECT EVIDENCE : 

to be treated as mere fiction. As to the abductions 
above-mentioned, tliej are to be regarded as samples of 
the manners of the times : — such circumstances, and 
many others to which neither poets nor historians have 
given celebrity, no doubt took place on the shores of 
the ^gsean sea — favourable as these have ever been to 
piratical enterprises. Yet if we can believe that Hero- 
dotus actually examined for himself the writings of the 
'-^ Persian historians" whom he quotes, and if he there 
found coincident narratives of the above-mentioned out- 
rages, these vague traditions would then acquire some- 
thing like the authority of history. 

There is a fact affirmed by the historian in the outset 
of his history which deserves a passing notice: — ^he 
says, that " the Phoenicians, coming from the shores of 
the Eed Sea (the Persian Gulf, or the Indian Ocean) 
settled upon the borders of this sea (the Mediterranean) 
in the country they now inhabit; whence they made 
distant voyages, carrying on the commerce of Egypt 
and Assyria, with the surrounding countries." This- 
emigration of the Phoenicians — which in itself is by no 
means improbable — the distance between the two seas- 
being not great, and such emigrations being frequent in 
ancient times — is mentioned by several ancient authors,, 
though denied by Strabo ; nevertheless it provoked the 
ridicule of Voltaire, who asks, " What does the father 
of history mean in the commencement of his work, 
when he says that, ^ the Persian historians relate that 
the Phoenicians were the authors of all the wars ; and 
that they came from the Eed Sea to ours'? It seems 



HERODOTUS. 339 

then that they emibarkecl on the Gulf of Suez — passed 
through the straits of Babel Mandel — coasted along the 
shores of Ethiopia — crossed the Line— doubled the Cape 
of Tempests, since called the Cape of Good Hope — as- 
cended the sea between Africa and America, which is 
the only way in which they could come — re-crossed 
the Line, and entered the Mediterranean by the Pillars 
of Hercules, which would have been a voyage of more 
than four thousand marine leagues, at a time when navi- 
gation was in its infancy ! " 

This passage is a sample of this writer's ignorance 
and audacity in dealing with history ; and it is an in- 
stance of the ease with which a charge of absurdity 
or falsification may be made out against an historian 
by a writer who is at once destitute of learning and 
of candour. " M. Voltaire," says Larcher^ '' would have 
spared himself this criticism, had he possessed even a 
moderate knowledge of the Greek language. If Hero- 
dotus had intended to intimate that the Phoenicians 
came by sea, he would have employed another Greek 
idiom. Besides, he would not have added, that ^ they 
then undertook long voyages ; ' as, on the supposition 
of their having come by sea, they had already made 
a voyage much longer and more perilous than any they 
afterwards undertook. But if there remained any doubt 
as to the meaning of the passage, the author removes 
it in another place (Polymnia^ 89) : ' These Phoenicians, 
as they themselves say, formerly inhabited the shores of 
the Eed Sea, wh^ncQ passing over, they now occupy the 
maritime part of Syria.' " 

z2 



340 IMPEEFECT EVIDENCE : 

The History — properly speaking — commences with 
tlie story of Croesus, king of Lydia, who reigned at 
Sardis about a century before the time of Herodotus. 
The Greeks, especially those of Asia Minor, maintained 
a frequent intercourse with the Lydians, and must 
therefore have had some general knowledge of their 
history ; and it is evident that our author made himself 
acquainted, by personal researches, with such records 
and traditions as he could find at Sardis. But between 
his time and the reign of Croesus, that city had once 
and again been pillaged, its government overthrown, 
the manners of its inhabitants changed, and probably, 
most of the ancient families had been banished, exter- 
minated, or reduced to poverty ; their places being sup- 
plied by Persians and Greeks. It must therefore be 
believed^ that the authentic records of the state had to a 
great extent been dissipated, and that little better than 
vague reports remained to be collected when Herodotus 
visited Sardis. We are not therefore to be surprised if 
we find an air of the fabulous in the story of Croesus 
and of his predecessors, the kings of Lydia. Neverthe- 
less, some of the leading facts were authenticated by 
those gifts, of various kinds, that had been consecrated 
by the Lydian kings at Delphi, and many of which were 
preserved in the temple of Apollo, at that place, in the 
time of Herodotus : these gifts, by the inscriptions they 
bore, served to verify the accounts elsewhere received. 
At Delphi, Herodotus not only inspected vessels of gold 
and silver, preserved in the temple where the oracles 
were given, but he received from the priests their own 



HERODOTUS. 341 

copies of the many responses whicli lie quotes in tlie 
course of his work. In these vaticinative verses the 
craft of the priests who composed them is often suffi- 
ciently apparent : and whatever they may be, their 
genuineness rests entirely upon the honesty of the Del- 
phian priests, from whom our author received them. 
Yet the subject of the ancient oracles should not be 
passed by without acknowledging that, amidst all the 
glaring frauds, and the frivolous evasions, and the in- 
terested compliances with the wishes of the applicants, 
which characterise these responses, there is apparent 
also in some of them a knowledge of contemporary — 
though remote events, and of a sagacity in relation to 
the future, which is not satisfactorily explained without 
admitting the interposition of a super-human agency. 
An absolute denial of any such intervention, while it is 
unsupported by a true philosophy, does violence to the 
principles of historical evidence ; nor is it demanded 
by any argumentative necessity. 

The interlocution between Croesus and Solon — the 
Athenian legislator, as related by Herodotus, may fairly 
be numbered among those dramatic embellishments 
with which ancient writers— and our author not less 
than others — thought themselves at liberty to relieve 
the attention of their readers. It need not be questioned 
that Solon visited Sardis ; and it is not improbable that 
some rebuke of the Lydian king's preposterous vanity — 
really uttered by the Grecian sage, may have formed the 
text of this long conversation. 

The story of Adrastus, the Phrygian refugee, and of 



342 IMPERFECT EVIDENCE : 

Atjs, the son of Croesus, if founded in fact, are evidently 
mucli indebted to tlie ingenuity of the narrator. Though 
these incidents may seem puerile to a modern reader, 
we ought to carry ourselves back to the author's times, 
before we pronounce them to be altogether improper in 
the place where they appear. A student of history who 
reads only modern compilations will fail to obtain that 
just and exact idea of antiquity which these excrescent 
parts of the works of ancient historians convey. 

The history of Croesus is interrupted by a long digres- 
sion, in which our author gives a sketch of the early 
history of the Athenians and Lacedaemonians. On these 
points he could be at no loss for traditions, or other 
sources of information; and here also he was open to 
correction from his contemporaries, who were as well 
informed as himself in matters of Grecian history. Yet 
the reader should not lose sight of the dates of the events 
severally mentioned, in forming his opinion of the value 
of the evidence. It is the manner of Herodotus to 
relate unimportant circumstances which took place — if 
at all — five hundred, or a thousand years before his time, 
with as much minuteness of detail, and as much con- 
fidence, as when he is describing recent events. Fre- 
quently, it may be supposed, he followed what he deemed 
authentic documents ; but as we have no sufficient means 
of forming an opinion on the subject, such recitals are not 
to be admitted among the established points of history, 
unless they are confirmed by a coincidence of authorities. 

The narrative of the war between Croesus and Cyrus, 
which ended in the final dissolution of the Lydian king- 



HERODOTUS. 343 

■dom, is resumed, sect. 69. The leading events of this 
war coidd not fail to be well known at the time in 
Greece; for besides that the intercourse between Greece 
and Asia was frequent, Croesus was on terms of friend- 
ship with the Lacedaimonians, and was everywhere 
celebrated for the magnificence of liis offerings to the 
Delphic god: moreover, the fall of Sardis, and the 
consequent conquests of the Persians in Asia Minor, 
brought a formidable enemy to the very door of Greece, 
and obliged the several states to inform themselves 
much more exactly than heretofore, of the affairs of their 
Asiatic neighbours. We may therefore place the con- 
quests of Cyrus in Asia Minor among the authenticated 
facts of history. Yet from the details, as given by 
Herodotus, some considerable deductions must be made ; 
for there is an air of dramatic embellishment apparent 
throughout the narrative. Sardis was taken by Cyrus 
about one hundred years before Herodotus wrote his 
history: it is not therefore probable that he had the 
•opportunity of verifying his authorities by consulting 
any living witnesses of the event : it is more likely that 
he worked up, in his own manner, some floating tradi- 
tions received from the Asiatic Greeks. 

Croesus, confounded by misfortunes which seemed to 
give the lie to the Delphic god, whose favour and advice 
lie had courted by gifts of unexampled richness, re- 
quested permission of Cyrus to send the fetters he had 
worn, to Delphi, to be laid on the threshold of the 
temple; — directing the messenger to ask the Grecian 
god — If it was his custom to delude those who had 



344 IMPEKFECT EVIDENCE : 

merited the best at Jbis hands. This request was granted ; 
and the Lydian messenger brought hack a reply which, 
whether or not it may be considered as genuine, is 
curious, if taken as a specimen of the pohcy and style of 
the Pythian : — 

— When the Lydians arrived and delivered their 
message, the Pythian is said to have replied — That 
even the god could not avert the decree of fate. That 
Croesus, the fifth in descent, suffered for the sin of 
his progenitor, who being a servant of the Heraclidge, 
consented to the guile of the woman, and slew his master ; 
taking possession without right, of his place and honour. 
That yet Apollo had endeavoured to defer the fall of 
Sardis till the next generation ; but that lie had not heen 
able to move the Fates, who would no further yield to his 
solicitation than, as a special favour to Croesus, to place 
the taking of Sardis three years later than otherwise it 
would have happened. Let Croesus therefore know that 
he is a captive three years later than the Fates had 
decreed ; and then remember that Apollo rescued him 
when about to be burned. As to the response, Croesus 
had no right to complain ; for the god had foretold that 
if he invaded the Persians, he would overthrow a great 
empire; and if upon this he had wished to be better 
informed, he should have inquired again, whether his 
own empire, or that of Cyrus was intended. Wherefore, 
as he had neither understood the oracle, nor asked for its 
meaning, he might take the blame to himself. 

Having dismissed the Lydian affairs, Herodotus pro- 
ceeds to give a sketch of the history of the Assyrians, 



HERODOTUS. 345 

Medes, and Persians, and to relate the story of the 
elevation of Cyrus to supreme power in Upper Asia. 
That he had visited Persia cannot reasonably be ques- 
tioned ; nor need it be doubted that he diligently availed 
himself of every means in his power to acquire informa- 
tion. Whether he was master of any of the eastern 
languages does not certainly appear ; for though he 
frequently refers to the Persian historians, and though, 
in one place (139), he makes a philological remark on 
a peculiarity of the Persian language, we must ask more 
direct proof than this of his possessing an accomplishment 
so rare among the Greeks. We must however believe, 
that, at least by means of an interpreter, he had consulted 
the Persian writers. In commencing the history of 
Cyrus, he says — I shall follow those Persian writers 
who, without endeavouring to exaggerate the exploits 
of Cyrus, seem to adhere to the simple truth ; — ^yet not 
ignorant that three different accounts of him are abroad. — 
Whether these three accounts are in fact those given 
by himself, by Ctesias, and by -<iEschylus, cannot 
be ascertained. It is evident that exaggerations and 
errors abounded among the oriental historians : the 
Greeks therefore, having at best a very imperfect access 
to these discordant authorities, must be perused with 
caution : it would be unsafe to rely with confidence 
upon any of these narratives; or to found upon them 
objections to statements which we derive from sources 
that are much more credible. 

A general conformity with facts is all that we ought 
to expect from the Greek historians when they speak ot 



346 IMPERFECT evidence: 

the remote history of Asia. Herodotus at Babylon, or 
at Susa, mnst have "been almost entirely dependent upon 
the good faith of the learned men with whom he hap- 
pened to form acquaintance ; and even if we give them 
€redit for as much honesty as is usually practised on 
similar occasions towards foreigners — and him for a 
great measure of diligence and discretion, we shall 
scarcely find reason for considering these portions of the 
work to be true, otherwise than as to the general outline 
•of events. Herodotus must however be allowed to rank 
above Xenophon, on the ground of authenticity ; for 
the Cyropgedia is only a political romance. Diodorus 
Siculus had access to sources of information that were 
not open to Herodotus ; and the statements of the later 
may be admitted in correction of those of the earlier 
historian. Justin, or rather Trogus, seems to follow 
our author in his incidents, varying from him only in 
the order of some events. Josephus, in his reply to 
Apion, treats the Greek historians with contempt when 
they presumed to speak of Asiatic affairs ; urging 
against them their many contradictions, and their want 
of really ancient and authentic documents, and quoting, 
as of higher authority, several works of which these 
citations are almost the only remaining fragments. 
Without impeaching the character of Herodotus, we 
may peruse the earlier portions of his history as an 
entertaining narrative, held together by a connected 
thread of truth, and supporting a series of incidents 
which, though characteristic of the times, are of very ques- 
tionable historical authority. Of this kind is the story 



HERODOTUS. 347 

of tlie birth and early adventures of Cyrus, in which the 
art of the narrator in working up his materials, is 
apparent. — Probably some popular tales communicated 
to our author in Persia, were adapted by him to the 
taste of the Greeks. In his account of the manners, 
usages, habits, and buildings of the nations he visited, 
and of the features and productions of the countries 
through which he travelled, our author is deserving of a 
high degree of confidence ; and though a few particulars, 
— plainly fabulous, are mingled with these descriptions, 
they must be admitted to take a place among the most 
valuable of the remains of ancient literature. 

The narrative of the subjugation of the lonians and 
^olians of Asia Minor, by the Persians, stands, for the 
most part, upon a higher ground of authority than those 
which precede, and those which immediately follow it ; 
not only because the transactions were comparatively 
recent ; but because the affairs of these Asiatic Greeks 
were, at all times, well known to those of Europe. 

The capture of Babylon by Cyrus was an event too 
remarkable in itself, and in the extraordinary circum- 
stances attending it, to leave room for much diversity 
among the accounts of it which were transmitted to the 
next age. The Greek historians differ but little in 
relating this memorable event, and their testimony, 
independent as it is, when collated with the circum- 
stantial predictions of the Hebrew prophet, deserves 
peculiar regard. If the history of Herodotus had no 
other claims to attention, it would have claim enough 
by affording, as it does, in several signal instances, an 



348 iMPEEFECT evidence: 

unexceptionable testimony in illustration of tlie fulfil- 
ment of prophecy. 

The expedition of Cyrus against the Massagetes, a 
Scythian nation, in which he perished, closes the first 
book of the history. Here again there may he reason 
to suspect a want of authentic information. The scene 
of action was remote, not merely from Greece, but from 
Persia, and the survivors of the Persian army told, 
when they returned, each his own tale of wonder : nor 
is it probable that any other account of the war was 
extant in the time of Herodotus than what had been 
received from these persons. 

The instances that have now been mentioned, occur- 
ring in the first book of Herodotus, may serve as 
examples of the difierent degrees of authority which 
may belong to difi'erent portions of an historical work 
— dependent both upon the means of information pos- 
sessed by the writer, and upon his liability to contradic- 
tion and correction from his contemporaries. It is enough 
if we keep in view the general principles stated above 
(chap. XIII.), in adhering to which, we have a suffi- 
cient guidance in perusing a work like that of Herodotus^ 
combining as it does, materials of all kinds, more or less 
valuable and authentic. As to some of the facts he 
relates, we may regard them as absolutely certain, 
others as doubtful, improbable, or unreal. With the 
worst intentions, and the meanest qualifications, an 
historian of recent events, whose writings are received 
in his own times as authentic, can seldom be charged 
with glaring falsifications of facts ; on the other hand, 



HERODOTUS. 349 

the most cautious, industrious, and scrupulous writer, 
who compiles the history of remote times, and of foreign 
nations, may innocently wander very far from the path 
of truth. It would subserve no useful purpose to 
adduce a larger sample of instances in illustration of 
these obvious principles. We may now give some 
account of those who have signalised themselves as the 
assailants of this great writer. 

Herodotus, as we have already said, was severely 
reprehended by several ancient writers, especially by 
Ctesias, Manetho, Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, Josephus, 
and, above all, by Plutarch, or by the angry writer who 
assumes his name. The grounds of exception taken by 
these writers are, in a few instances just; in most cases, 
the influence of prejudice or petty jealousy is apparent ; 
yet none of these criticisms affect that part of the 
history which alone we allege to be unquestionably 
authentic. But modern authors also have attacked the 
reputation of the historian, and we may briefly notice 
some of these more recent criticisms ; for if it is 
affirmed of a portion of this history, that its truth is 
absolutely certain, it ought to be shown that the facts 
in behalf of which so high a claim is advanced have 
never been called in question — or never, with any 
degree of plausibility. 

Certain critics, of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, 
taking offence at some of the less authentic portions 
of this work, and especially at some ill-understood de- 
scriptions of animals and plants, speak of the historian as 
a compiler of fables : thus Ludovicus Vives, a learned 



350 HERODOTUS 

Spaniard, well known in England during the reign of 
Hemy VIII., speaks of the books of Herodotus as 
abounding in things untrue. Another says, " Herodo- 
tus, that he might not seem to have omitted anything, 
brought together, without selection, matters of all kinds; 
of which the greater part were derived, not from ancient 
records, but from the fables of the vulgar. And although 
his style is agreeable, and even elegant, he forfeits the 
confidence of those who exercise a sound and impartial 
judgment; for such readers cannot give credence to a 
work so crammed with various narrations. — By some 
indeed he is called the 'father of history;' but hj others 
he is justly named the ' father of fables.' " 

Bodin, in his "Method of History," says, " I wonder 
that Cicero should have designated Herodotus alone as 
the father of history, whom all antiquity accuses of 
falsehood; for there cannot be a greater proof that an 
historian is unworthy of credit, than that he should be 
manifestly convicted of error by all writers. ^N^ever- 
theless I do not think that he ought to be wholly 
rejected; for besides the merit of eloquence, and the 
charm of the Ionic sweetness, there is in him much 
that holds forth antiquity, and many things in the 
latter books of his history, are narrated with an exact 
adherence to truth." 

Wheare, in his " Method of reading History," thus 
speaks of our author : " Although Herodotus gives 
some relations that are not much better than fables, 
yet the body of his history is composed with eminent 
fidelity, and a diligent pursuit of truth. Many of those 



AND HIS CEITICS. 351 

less authentic narratives he himself introduces by saying 
that he reports not what he thinks true, but what he 
had received from others." 

" It would be absurd," says Isaac Yossius, " to confide 
in Herodotus alone, in what relates to Persian and Baby- 
lonian affairs; seeing that he was unacquainted with the 
Persian language, and unfurnished with the records of 
any of the nations of the east." Bishop Stillingfleet 
speaks of the historian very much in the same strain 
as the authors above quoted. He has also been un~ 
courteously treated by some later writers; of these 
Voltaire is the most distinguished. Whenever occasion 
presents itself he labours to cast contempt upon the 
father of history. Of this writer's ignorance and 
flippancy in commenting upon Herodotus, we have 
already adduced an example : others of a similar kind 
might easily be cited. Thus, he represents the histo- 
rian as affirming, in a number of instances, what he- 
professes only to report ; as the story of Arion, and. 
that of the Lydians who are said to have invented, 
various games to allay the pains of hunger. He denies, 
as utterly incredible the account given by Herodotus 
of the dissolute manners of the Babylonians: ''that 
which does not accord with human nature, can never 
be true." Yet the customs alluded to are expressly 
affirmed to have prevailed there by Strabo, and are dis- 
tinctly mentioned by a writer whose evidence in such 
a case need not be suspected — Baruch, YI. 43; and 
usages not less revolting are known to have been 
established in many ancient cities. 



352 HEEODOTUS 

In several instances, either from ignorance or malice, 
Voltaire mistranslates Herodotus, in such a manner as 
to create an absurdity or impropriety which does not 
exist in the original ; and sometimes he cites passages 
that are nowhere to be found in our author. Herodotus, 
(Thalia, 72) affirms that it was the custom of the 
Scythians to impale a number of persons, having first 
strangled them, as a part of the funeral rites with which 
their kings were honoured. But Voltaire makes the 
historian affirm that the victims of this barbarous 
custom were impaled alive ; and he then finds occasion 
to deny the truth of the story. If there are any, who, 
at this time, think Voltaire's criticisms upon the Scrip- 
tures worthy of any regard, they would do well to 
examine, with some care, the grounds of his remarks 
upon Herodotus. If in the case of a Greek historian, 
towards whom we may suppose him to have entertained 
no peculiar ill feeling, we find him displaying igno- 
rance, indifference to truth, and a senseless flippancy — 
what may we expect when he attacks those writings 
towards which he avows the utmost hostility of inten- 
tion? 

Under all these attacks Herodotus has not wanted 
apologists; and while the writers above mentioned, 
taking an unfair advantage of some doubtful, or evi- 
dently fabulous passages, for the truth of which the 
historian does not pledge himself, have accused him of 
a want of veracity ; others, more candid, have entered 
into the details of these accusations, and have shown, 
either that the author's credit is not really implicated in 



AND HIS CRITICS. 353 

the narratives lie brings together; or that these accounts 
are much better founded than, at first sight, they may- 
appear. The editors and translators of Herodotus — 
such as Aldus, Camerarius, Stephens, Wesseling, Gro- 
novius — have undertaken his defence ; in some instances 
establishing the disputed facts ; in others excusing the 
author from the charge of falsification. These discus- 
sions relate, for the most part, to those portions of the 
history which we have excluded from our present 
argument; and with which therefore we have here 
no immediate concern. 

" Few writers," says Larcher, " have united in so eminent 
a degree as Herodotus the various excellences proper to an 
historian. Let us in the first place speak of his love of 
truth. Whoever reads his history with attention, easily 
perceives that he has proposed to himself no other object 
but truth ; and that when he entertains a doubt he adduces 
both opinions, leaving it to his readers to choose which they 
please of the two. If any particular seems to himself un- 
authentic or incredible, he never fails to add that he only 
reports what has been told him. Among a thousand exam- 
ples I shall cite but two. — When Neco ceased to dig the 
canal which was to have led the waters of the Nile into 
the Arabian Gulf, he despatched from this gulf certain 
Phoenicians, with orders to make the circuit of Africa, and 
to return to Egypt by the Pillars of Hercules, now known 
as the Straits of Gibraltar. These Phoenicians returned to 
Egypt the third year after their departure, and related, 
among other things, that in sailing round Africa, they had 
had the sun (rising) on their right hand. Herodotus did 
not doubt that the Phoenicians actually made the circuit of 
Africa; but as astronomy was then in its infancy, he could 

A A 



354 HERODOTUS 

not believe that in this voyage they had really seen the sun 
on the right hand : — ' this fact/ says he, ' appeared to me by 
no means credible ; yet perhaps there are those to whom it 
may seem so.' 

" Another point which has not been duly attended to is, 
that very often he commences his narrative thus — The 
Persians — The Phoenicians — The Egyptian Priests, have told 
me this or that. These narrations, which sometimes extend 
to a considerable length, are, in the original, throughout, 
made to depend upon this word <jf>a(rt — they say, either 
expressed or understood. The genius of our modern lan- 
guages obliging us to retrench these phrases, it often happens 
that Herodotus is made to say in his own person what in fact 
he reports in the third person. Thus things have been attri- 
buted to him, for the authenticity of which he is very hx 
from vouching. 

'* He travelled in all the countries of which he has occasion 
to speak, he examined with scrupulous attention the rivers 
and streams by which they are watered — the animals which 
belong to them — the productions of the earth — the manners 
of the inhabitants — their usages, as well religious as civil ; — 
he consulted their archives, their inscriptions, their monu- 
ments ; and when these means of information failed him, or 
appeared to him insufficient, he had recourse to those among 
the people who were reputed to be the most skilled in history. 
He even carried his scrupulosity so far, that though he had 
no just reason for distrusting the priests of Memphis, he 
repaired to Heliopolis (Euterpe, 3), and then to Thebes, in 
order to discover if the priests of the latter city agreed with 
those of Memphis. 

" One cannot refuse confidence to an historian who takes 
such pains to assure himself of the truth. If, however, 
notwithstanding all these precautions, it has sometimes 
happened to him to be deceived, I think he deserves in such 



AND HIS CRITICS. 355 

instances rather indulgence than blame. Herodotus is not 
less exact in all matters of Natural History than in historical 
'facts. Some ancient writers have dismissed, as fabulous, 
some particulars which have since been verified by modern 
naturalists— much more learned than the ancients. The 
celebrated Boerhaave did not hesitate to say, in speaking of 
Herodotus—' modern observations establish almost all that 
great man's assertions.' " 

Some English writers also, wishing, as it seems, like 
Voltaire, to bring all history under suspicion, by 
endeavouring to prove that the best authenticated facts 
may, with some show of reason be questioned, have 
impugned the testimony, not of Herodotus alone, but of 
all the Greek historians. 

In recent times all this ground has been so well and 
thoroughly explored by writers eminently qualified for 
the task, that it would be quite a superfluous labour to 
refiite those whose criticisms have passed into oblivion.* 

Writers who, on general grounds, have laboured to 
show that Herodotus vastly exaggerates the power, 
valour, energy, of the Greeks, as compared with the 
Asiatic nations, have forgotten that, in estimating his 
testimony in this case, we are abundantly furnished with 
independent evidences— touching, as well the Asiatic, 
as the European civilisation, at the times in question. 
These existing monuments on the one side, leave no 
room to doubt that the soil of Greece, during a long 
course of time, supported a numerous people, eminently 

* Some of these were named in the first edition of this book ; but 
it would be a waste of space to bring them forward anew. 
A A 2 



356 HEEODOTUS 

endowed at once with the physical qualities of strength, 
beauty, alacrity, and courage, and with a mental con- 
formation, combining the ratiocinative and imaginative 
faculties in the happiest proportions. There is proof 
before us that these advantages, inherent in the race, 
were improved ; that a very high degree of civilisation in 
almost all its branches, and of refinement, was attained ; 
that the resources of an extensive commerce were pos- 
sessed, and a large amount of political power acquired, 
by the Greeks; or to express all at once — that the 
Greeks were then, what the nations of western Europe 
are now, as compared with the nations of Asia. 

Even if it could be made to appear probable that, in 
the first ages of the world, Asia — and in Asia, Persia, 
was the centre of civilisation, yet it must be granted, 
that, so far as authentic history reaches, the picture of 
the Asiatic nations is uniform in its character and 
colouring. Asia has indeed produced some races dis- 
tinguished by a fierce energy, by romantic courage, 
by loftiness and richness of imagination. But in no 
people of Asiatic origin that has displayed at once, and 
in combination, the effective energy, the high intelligence, 
the taste, the well-directed and sustained industry, 
which belong to the more advanced of the European 
nations : — never have its hordes risen to that level on 
the scale of intelligence at which men become at once 
desirous of political liberty, and capable of enjoying so 
great a good. 

The relation which modern European armies — those 
of the Portuguese, the Dutch, the French, and the 



AND HIS CEITICS. 357 

English, have always borne to the native forces of India, 
is very much the same as that which history affirms to 
have existed in all ages between the people of the East 
and of the West. Though the latter have not driven 
the former before them like sheep, they have at length 
prevailed over them, as courage conquers rage, as mind 
subdues mere force, and as skill is more than numbers. 
It is, in substance, the same story that we read, whether 
the page of history presents us with the exploits of 
Clive in India, or of Pompey in Parthia and Syria, or 
of Miltiades at Marathon, or of Alexander in Persia. 

The narrative of Herodotus is therefore substantially 
the first chapter of the history of the enduring conflict 
between Asia and Europe ; and this commencement of 
the story is in harmony with all its subsequent events. 
On the one side is seen a reckless despotism, seated on 
the shoulders of a boundless population, and which, at 
the instigation of a puerile or a ferocious ambition, lets 
forth a deluge of war, the course of which was as little 
directed by skill, as it was checked by humanity. On 
the other side are seen much smaller means, employed 
with incomparably greater intelligence ; and excepting 
only the partial events of war, the general issue has 
ever been the same. 



CHAPTEE XX. 

EECENT EXPLORATIONS, CONFIRMATORY OF THE TRUTH 
OF ANCIENT HISTORY : HERODOTUS AND BEROSUS. 

What we are now doing is to adduce a few samples of 
the means that are available for establishing the truth 
of the more remote facts of ancient history, according to 
those general principles which have already been ex- 
plained — taking Herodotus as our first, and Berosus as 
our second instance. In the tenth chapter (p. 112) a 
brief reference has been made to those statues, busts, 
monuments, inscriptions, whence ancient historians drew 
a portion of their materials. But more than a few 
of these solid vouchers for the truth of written history 
have come down to modern times, and are accessible, 
either on the sites of ancient cities, or in museums. 
In the twelfth chapter (pp. 141-157), these now-extant 
evidences are again, and more particularly referred to. 
In the fifteenth chapter a glance at the contents of the 
British Museum brings this species of evidence yet 
further into notice, and we there (p. 219) make a passing 
reference to Herodotus, as one amongst those writers — 
indeed, the foremost of them, whose testimony finds con- 
firmation in the sculptures of the Grecian, the Assyrian, 
and the Egyptian saloons. 



EECENT EXPLORATIONS. 359 

To this particular subject, tlierefore, we now return ; 
but sliall think it sufficient to name, at hazard, a few 
among the very many instances which might be adduced, 
of a similar kind, and which possess, in different de- 
grees, the same historic value. The reader will under- 
stand that nothing more can be attempted within the 
limits of a volume like this, than to state the general 
principles of historic evidence, and to illustrate such 
statements by a few examples. This has been done at 
large, in the instance of Herodotus (as we have just 
now said) by several eminent writers of modern times, 
namely, the editors of the Greek Text ; and still more 
effectively by some of later date — French and German. 
Among English writers we should mention Sir John 
Ker Porter, in his Travels in Persia; Major Eennell, 
in his Essay on the Geography of Herodotus ; Mr. 
Layard, in his " Mneveh and its Eemains, " and his 
later work, " Discoveries in the Euins of Nineveh and 
Babylon." To the same purpose much of illustrative 
and incidental discussion finds a place in Grote's 
" History of Greece," and in Mure's '' Critical History 
of the Language and Literature of Greece." More spe- 
cifically these subjects come forward in the Papers and 
Essays of Dr. Hincks, and of Sir H. Eawlinson, and in 
many of the elaborate notes, and the subjoined essays of 
the now forthcoming work, " The History of Herodotus: 
a New English Version," by.Mr. Eawlinson, Sir H. Eaw- 
linson, and Sir J. G. Wilkinson. In these works — acces- 
sible to the English reader, and which are found in most 
libraries — ample and precise information may easily be 



360 EECENT EXPLOEATIONS I 

olbtained, of the same kind as that of whicli a few instances 
only are here adduced. Major Rennell's Essay on the 
Geography of Herodotus, has already been referred to 
(p. 312), and it might here again be brought forward, for 
furnishing instances attesting the fact that the Greek 
historian, not content with collecting materials at second 
hand, and at home, had actually visited most of the 
countries of which he gives any particular account, and 
certainly Mesopotamia and Egypt, and to some extent 
Scythia, and Northern Africa also, beside the southern 
parts of Italy ; and it may be affirmed, as to this great 
extent of lands, that, in their now actual natural features, 
their products — animal and vegetable, the customs and 
usages of the people, and especially in those enduring 
architectural monuments which attract the attention of 
modem travellers, these countries furnish visible and 
tangible vouchers in support of the reputation of Hero- 
dotus — giving evidence, as they do, of his industry, 
intelligence, and, generally, of the exactness of his reports 
and descriptions. 

Sir Robert Ker Porter* finds frequent occasion to name 
this same authority in illustration of existing antiquities. 
" How faithfully," he says, " do these vestiges agree with 
the method of building in Babylon, as described by 
Herodotus ! . . . the bricks intended for the walls were 
formed of the clay dug from the great ditch that backed 
them ; they were baked in large furnaces, and in order 
to join them together in building, warm bitumen was 

* Travels in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, Ancient Babylonia, &c. Two 
vols, quarto, 1821. 



HERODOTUS AND BEROSUS. 361 

used ; and between eacli course of thirty bricks, beds of 
reeds were laid interwoven together. The bitumen was 
drawn from pits near the Euphrates, which pits exist at 
this day." Since the time (1821) of Sir K. Ker Porter's 
explorations in Babylonia, so much has been done 
in these regions that we turn of course to more recent 
authorities : these, although they do not deprive his 
writings of all value, supersede them to a great extent. 
Chiefly within the last ten years, and entirely within 
these thirty years, unexpected progress has been made 
in deciphering the inscriptions that abound among the 
remains of this region ; and it may now be affirmed 
that the dark unknown of remote Asiatic history 
stands revealed before us. This recent revelation — 
this solving of what had been regarded as inscrutable 
mysteries — has taken effect in various degrees, upon 
the existing written histories of Assyria, Babylonia, 
Persia, Scythia — confirming much — correcting much; 
and utterly demolishing the credit of some portions of 
this hitherto-accepted history. It is thus that the tan- 
gible and the visible remains of remote ages, as now 
interpreted^ have effected an extensive reform in this 
department of human knowledge. If, in a few words, 
we were to state what has been the general result of these 
discoveries, it would be in this way — The recent inter- 
pretation of the inscriptions heretofore, or recently known, 
and which are found upon bricks, upon slabs and sculp- 
tured sm'faces, and upon the face of rocks, has, in several 
remarkable instances, furnished evidence confirmatory 
of Hebrew Scripture history ; it has given a general 



362 RECENT EXPLOEATIONS : 

support to tlie statements of Herodotus, as well as to 
tliose of Diodorus the Sicilian ; at the same time correct- 
ing those statements in various particulars ; it has irre- 
coverably annihilated the testimony of Ctesias — the rival 
and the bitter enemy of Herodotus ; and on the other 
hand it has, to a great extent, given authentication to 
what is extant of the Chaldaean writer — Berosus. To 
this last instance we must presently revert. 

In mentioning (Chapter XI.) the exceptions to which 
the testimony of ancient historians may be open — 
without impugning their veracity, we have of course 
claimed indulgence for them in relation to events re- 
mote, both in time and place from themselves, and for 
a knowledge of which they must have been dependent 
upon precarious sources of information. Nevertheless 
there are many instances of this very sort which have 
received from the industry of modern travellers very 
remarkable confirmation. One such instance comes 
before us in an early, or, as we may call it, the prelimi- 
nary portion of the history of Herodotus. In speaking 
of Lydia and of its people, he says that it contains little 
worthy of note — less, indeed, than other countries — yet 
it has one structure of enormous size, to which nothing 
is comparable, after we have excepted the buildings of 
Egypt and of Babylon : — this is the tomb of Halyattes, 
the father of Croesus, the foundation of which consists of 
immense blocks of stone, and otherwise of a mound of 
earth. This structure has now outlasted the revolutions 
of two thousand four hundred years, or more, and lately 
it has, with sufficient certainty, been identified by 



HERODOTUS AND BEEOSUS. BBS 

modern travellers. It is found upon the northern bank 
of the river Hermus, in the plain between Mounts Temnus 
and Siphylus. Mr. Hamilton thus describes the principal 
tumulus, generally designated as the tomb of Halyattes : 
— '' It took us about ten minutes to ride round its base, 
which would give it a circumference of nearly half a 
mile. Toward the north it consists of the natural rock, 
a white, horizontally stratified, earthy limestone, cut away 
so as to appear as part of the structure. The upper 
portion is sand and gravel, apparently brought from the 
bed of the Hermus. Several deep ravines have been 
worn ^by time and weather in its sides, particularly on 
that to the south ; we followed one of these as affording 
a better footing than the smooth grass, as we ascended 
to the summit. Here we found the remains of a foun- 
dation nearly eighteen feet square, on the north of 
which was a huge circular stone, ten feet in diameter, 
with a flat bottom, and a raised lip or edge, evidently 
placed there as an ornament on the apex of the 
tumulus." 

The Prussian consul at Smyrna, M. Spiegenthal, has 
examined this monument with more care, and has ex- 
plored the interior. He gives the average diameter of 
the mound as 281 yards, which would require a circum- 
ference of about half a mile, as roughly estimated by 
Mr. Hamilton. '' Carrying a tunnel into the interior 
of the mound, he discovered a sepulchral chamber com- 
posed of large blocks of white marble, highly polished, 
situated almost in the centre of the tumulus. The 
chamber measured about 11 feet by 8, and was 7 feet in 



364 RECENT EXPLORATIONS : 

height. It was empty, and contained no inscription 
or sarcophagus. This chamber, no doubt, had been 
entered and ransacked in remote times, and its trea- 
sures, whatever they may have been, carried off. There 
can be little doubt that this marble chamber was the 
actual resting-place of the Lydian king, who died 
according to our chronologies, B.C. 568." This structure, 
when seen by Herodotus, was a recent work — say about 
130 years had passed over it: it is now a mound, 
crumbling into a formless mass : — meantime the descrip- 
tion of it — even this page of Greek — in my view — is, as 
to its historic and its literary integrity, as fresh and as 
perfect as it was two thousand years ago — yes, and it 
is as imperishable as anything mundane can be. This 
Greek text will cease to exist — never — unless a deluge 
of water, of fire, or of universal barbarism shall come 
to wrap this planet in its pall. 

As nothing is attempted in this volume beyond the 
illustration of the method or process of historical 
evidence, we take only a glance at those visible con- 
firmations of our author's testimony, which are now 
directing the curiosity of the learned men of Europe, 
toward the levels of Mesopotamia — the banks of the 
Tigris and Euphrates. The mounds, the basement 
works, the gigantic sculptures, the inscriptions, combine 
to give evidence concerning Nineveh, and Babylon, and 
Persepolis, and in doing so shed a light upon remote 
antiquity, which, while it extends the limits of what is 
called ^' the historic period," avails also at once to cor- 
rect and to corroborate the extant written materials of 



HERODOTUS AND BEROSUS. 365 

history. Heretofore the existence of very many con- 
tradictions in these literary materials, and the suspicious 
aspect of portions of it, had thrown a vague uncertainty 
over the whole. But the course of inquiry, at this 
time, has a discriminative tendency, and it will, in its 
results, undoubtedly enable those who shall be compe- 
tent to the task, to set oif the true and certain, from the 
false and the doubtful, throughout the entire range of 
ancient history. Far more important than the determi- 
nation of any particular problems in the Assyrian, or 
Babylonish, or Persian history, such as the disputed 
date of wars, or the succession of monarchs, is the 
exclusion of those loose modes of thinking and of 
writing, the aim and intention of which has been to 
bring all history under suspicion, and thus to divert 
attention from the jpast universally, and to fix the 
thoughts of men upon the things of the day, and the 
objects of sense. 

Between the written history which has reached 
modern times, in the modes that have been mentioned 
in the preceding chapters, and the now extant substan- 
tial monuments of the same times, there is a correspond- 
ence which can in no way be accounted for, otherwise 
than by assuming the genuineness and the authenticity 
of the former. 

"The great temple of Babylon, regarding which the 
Greeks have left so many notices, is beyond all doubt to be 
identified with the enormous mound which is named Mujel- 
libeh by Rich, but to which the Arabs universally apply the 
title of Bdbil. In the description, however, which Hero- 



366 RECENT EXPLORATIONS: 

dotus gives of this famous building, lie would seem to have 
blended architectural details which appHed in reality to 
two different sites ; his measurement of a stade square, an- 
swering pretty well to the circumference of Babil, and his 
notices, also, of the chapels and altars of the god, being in 
close agreement with the accounts preserved in the inscrip- 
tions of Nebuchadnezzar, of the high place of Merodach at 
Babylon ; while, on the other hand, the elevation of seven 
stages, one above the other, and the construction of a shrine 
for the divinity at the summit of the pile, must necessarily 
refer to the temple of the Planets of the Seven Spheres at 
Borsippa, now represented by the ruins of Birs-Nimrud." — 
Sir H. Eawlinson : Herodotus, vol. i. p. 321. 

" On the whole, we may conclude with tolerable confidence, 
that in the great northern mound of Babylon, we have the 
remains of that famous temple which Herodotus describes 
so graphically, and which ancient writers so generally declare 
to have been one of the chief marvels of the eastern world. 
Its bricks bear the name of Nebuchadnezzar, who relates 
that he thoroughly repaired the building ; and it is the only 
ruin which seems to be that of a temple, among all the 
remains of ancient Babylon." — Idem. 

In the course of these recent explorations, an instance 
has presented itself which, in a very peculiar manner, 
illustrates our proper subject in this volume, namely — 
the trustworthiness of that mode of transmission which 
has brought ancient books into our hands. 

BerosuSj or Ber Oseas, a Chaldean priest and his- 
torian, flourished and wrote at Babylon in the times 
of Alexander's immediate successors. His work — the 
History of Babylonia, has failed to come down to 
modern times ; but it was extant in the early centuries 



HEEODOTUS AND BEROSUS. 367 

of the Christian era ; and it was very frequently men- 
tioned, and cited at length, by writers of those times. 
This history is confidently appealed to, and is quoted 
by Josephus; and passages drawn from it are found in 
Tatian, Eusebius, Clemens Alexandrinus, AthengeuSy 
Agathias, and others. Altogether, when these variously 
derived quotations are brought together, they form a 
mass — broken indeed into fragments, but yet sufficient 
for subserving highly important purposes in clearing 
up the ancient history of the East. In converting this 
remarkable instance to our purpose in this argument, 
we have first to point out the illustration it affords of 
the reality, and the truthfulness of that system of quota- 
tion to which, again and again, we have directed the 
reader's attention. Here we have before us a case in 
which fragmentary citations, and incidental references — 
made by a number of writers, are found so to consist, 
and to agree one with another, as to authenticate at once 
the writer who is quoted, and the writers who quote : it is 
a mutually corroborative testimony. But in the next 
place, these fragments have lately received a kind of 
authentication that was little looked for, and which 
indeed deserves peculiar regard. What we here refer 
to is the trilingual Eock-Inscription which recently has 
received its interpretation. In referring to this instance, 
and in converting it to our present purpose, we must be 
understood to assume, what we believe ought not to be 
doubted, namely, the validity of that system of inter- 
pretation which has at length given us the English of 
these inscriptions. A few passages we now quote are 



368 RECENT EXPLOEATIONS : 

from Eawlinson's Herodotus. The following (vol. ii» 
p. 590) describes the Rock-Inscriptions of Behistun. 

" Behistun is situated on the western frontier of the 
ancient Media, upon the road from Babylon to the 
southern Ecbatana, the great thoroughfare between the 
eastern and the western provinces of the ancient Persia. 
The precipitous rock, 1,700 feet high, on which the 
writing is inscribed, forms a portion of the great chain 
of Zagros, which separates the high plateau of Iran 
from the vast plain watered by the two streams of the 
Tigris and Euphrates. The inscription is engraved at 
the height of 300 feet from the base of the rock, and 
can only be reached with much exertion and difficulty. 
It is trilingual : one transcript is in the ancient Persian, 
one in Babylonian, the other in a Scythic or Tatar 
dialect. Col. Rawlinson gathers from the monument 
itself that it was executed in the fifth year of the reign 
of Darius, B. c. 516." 

In these inscriptions, covering a large surface of the 
native rock, Darius, the great king, tells the world who 
he is, what he has done, what wars he has waged, what 
countries he has conquered, and what structures he has 
raised : — 

" I (am) Darius, the great king, the king of kings, 
the king of Persia, the king of the (dependent) pro- 
vinces, the son of Hystaspes, the grandson of Arsames 
the Achsemenian." 

"We have mentioned (p. 256) what was the usage of 
the copyists in commending their labours to the care of 
the men of after times, and in attaching tremendous 



HERODOTUS AND BEROSUS. 369 

anatliemas to the crime of destroying, or of alienating 
the book. Here, now, a curious coincidence presents 
itself; for this great king, in bringing this sculptured 
record of his reign to a close, thus utters his will : — 

^' Darius the king says, — If seeing this tablet, and 
these images, thou injurest them, and preservest them 
not as long as my seed endures, (then) may Ormazd be 
thy enemy, and mayest thou have no offspring; and 
whatever thou doest, may Ormazd curse it for thee." 

As to the available value of these inscriptions, Mr. 
Rawlinson thus writes (vol. i. p. 432) : — ^ 

*' Until quite recently the most obscure chapter in the 
world's history was that which related to ancient Babylonia. 
With the exception of the Biblical notices regarding the 
kingdom of Nimrod, and the confederates of Ghedor-laomer, 
there was nothing authentic to satisfy, or even to guide 
research. . . . The materials accumulated during the last 
few years, in consequence of the excavations which have 
been made upon the sites of the ruined cities of Babylonia 
and Chaldsea, have gone far to clear up doubts upon the 
general question. Each succeeding discovery has tended to 
authenticate the chronology of Berosus, and to throw dis- 
credit upon the tales of Ctesias and his followers. . . . The 
chronology which we obtain from the cuneiform inscriptions 
in this early empire, harmonises perfectly with the numbers 
given in the scheme of Berosus. ... It is evident that the 
chronological scheme of Berosus .... is, in a general way, 
remarkably supported and confirmed. ... As to the chrono- 
logy of Ctesias, it is irreconcileable with Scripture, at 
variance with the monuments, and contradictory to the 
native historian, Berosus, whose chronological statements 
have recently received such abundant confirmation from the 

B B 



370 RECENT EXPLORATIONS. 

course of cuneiform discovery. ... It may therefore be dis- 
carded as a pure and absolute fiction ; and the shorter chro- 
nology of Herodotus and Berosus may be followed. The 
scheme of these writers is in tolerable harmony with the 
Jewish records^ and agrees also sufficiently well with the 
results at present derivable from the inscriptions." 

Our object here is not to determine disputable points 
in ancient history, but merely to exhibit, in its several 
parts, the method, or process, of historic proof. With 
this view, only, before us, we need not do more than 
bring forward these samples of this method, in its 
several kinds. It would be easy, if useful, to go on — 
from book to book of the History of Herodotus — finding 
confirmations or corrections of his narratives and de- 
scriptions, and much that would be pertinent, derived 
from the pages of modern travellers, or from the con- 
tents of museums. But to do so would lead us far, and 
indeed would fill bulky volumes. The facts, thus far 
briefly adduced, furnish the intelligent and studious 
reader with suggestions for prosecuting inquiries, on this 
ground, to any extent to which his taste or his purposes 
may lead him onward. 



CHAPTEE XXI. 

INFERENTIAL HISTORIC MATERIALS. 

A BOOK may come into my hand which contains no 
narrative of events — no allusion to the persons or 
transactions of the author's times — in a word, nothing, 
from the first page to the last, which in a direct manner 
should enable me to assign a date to it. Nevertheless, 
such a book may actually possess much historic signi- 
ficance, and it may take its place among those materials 
of which a writer of history will eagerly avail himself. 
This assertion may need some explanation ; as thus : — 

Each nation, as distinguished from other nations, its 
contemporaries, and each period in the world's history, 
as compared with periods anterior to it and subsequent, 
has its characteristics, its moral tone, its intellectual 
range, and its tastes ; it has its principles, its modes of 
reasoning, and especially its condition as a season, 
either of progress and expansion, or of decay and 
decline. Now these characteristics are important in 
themselves, and they are often highly so, in clearing up 
historic problems. 

Nevertheless historians seldom afford direct informa- 
tion illustrative either of the moral or the intellectual 
bb2 



372 INFERENTIAL 

condition of ancient nations ; nor indeed is this deficiency 
much to be regretted, for such subjects are too indefinite 
to be treated in the style proper to history ; and when his- 
torians philosophise, they bring the simplicity of their 
testimony into just suspicion. Besides, the mental con- 
dition of a people can be fairly estimated only by being 
placed in comparison with that of others ; and few writers, 
how extensive soever may be their acquaintance with 
facts, are qualified to arbitrate between their contem- 
poraries, and their predecessors, or between their own 
countrymen and their neighbom's. 

Yet although information of this sort may not present 
itself on the pages of historians, it may be derivable 
from other sources ; for when the literary monuments of 
an ancient people are in existence, the knowledge we 
are in search of may be collected with a high degree of 
certainty therefrom. Yet the process may be nice and 
difficult, inasmuch as the indications from which it is 
to be gathered are more or less recondite. For this 
very reason the conclusions we obtain by a course 
of inferences and comparisons, may be the more ex- 
empt from suspicion. The pages of historians may be 
swelled with descriptions of the resources, the foreign 
influence, the population, and the polity of empires; 
meantime an intelligent inquirer may obtain — from the 
casual hints and allusions of writers of a less pretentious 
class, a true knowledge of the taste and the morals of a 
people. 

It is obvious that we are not to attach much value, in 
this sense, to the embittered sarcasms of misanthropes, 



HISTORIC MATERIALS. 373 

or to tlie epigrams of satirists, wlio hold up to view the 
two corrupted extremes of a social system — namely, the 
pampered favourites, and the desperate outcasts of for- 
tune. Nor should we listen, without caution, either to the 
dreams of poets, from whose pictures the ills of reality 
have been discharged, or to the averments of philosophers, 
who are often less true to nature than even the poets. 

Inferences, in an inquiry of this kind, may be drawn 
from what is recorded of— the modes of life, and the 
domestic usages, and the amtisements of a people ; or 
from the characteristics of their worship ; or from the 
popular feeling, whether of approbation, surprise, or 
abhorrence, that is excited by the actions of public 
persons. 

Valid information also is to be gathered from the 
enactments of a people whose moral condition is undei 
inquiry. This sort of material is either that which 
is fixed, and has been consigned to the executive, by 
legislative authority; or that which floats at large in 
those ethical writings which have taken a permanent 
place in the literature of the country. In deriving 
inferences from the first — namely, the sanctioned 
laws of a people, several distinctions must be ob- 
served; for we must not bring forward antiquated laws ; 
and in examining recent enactments, the political 
circumstances of the time must not be forgotten, for the 
momentary interests of parties, or of individuals, not 
seldom produce legislative decisions that are altogether 
anomalous, as to the condition of the people. Often 
mere chance has had sway in senates, and may have 



374 INFERENTIAL 

exercised more influence in tlie grave business of law- 
making than the sage and solemn forms of the place 
would seem to bespeak. 

But it must be with the last-named source of informa- 
tion only that we shall now have to do. What we say 
is this — That, with due caution, substantial information 
relative to the moral and intellectual condition of a 
people, may be collected from the ethical writings that 
have been accepted and approved among them. This 
proposition carries several important consequences, and 
it may be well to illustrate it by some examples. 

Every hortatory composition contains, explicitly or 
by implication, two fixed points, which it is the business 
of the inquirer to ascertain. One of these is much more 
readily found than the other ; yet there exists a means 
of measuring the distance between the two ; so that the 
one being determined, the other also may be discovered: 
— for example, The first point ascertainable in an ethical 
composition is — the system of morals, or the standard 
of excellence which the author has imagined, and which 
he recommends and enforces. This point may be termed 
the ideal level of the writer s mind in morals, and it is in 
most cases quite easy to be fixed. The second, and less 
obvious point, and that which is the very object of our 
inquiries, is — the actual state of morals among those 
whom the writer addresses, and which may be called 
the real level of popular morals. Our business then is 
to find this last or unknown point, by measuring the 
distance between the two. Now this distance is more or 
less distinctly indicated by the tone of every ethical 



HISTORIC MATEEIALS. 375 

composition. We have then in our problem three terms : 
one known, one demanded, and a middle term, connect- 
ing the two, which remains to be worked out of the 
materials before us. 

The distinctness of the indications from which our 
middle, or measuring term, is to be formed, will vary- 
greatly in different cases. In works of a philosophical 
cast thej will be extremely faint, and perhaps not 
available for our purpose; while in treatises that are 
of a simple and popular character, and which consist of 
precise exhortations — reproofs and advices — there will 
be little difficulty in drawing the inferences we are in 
search of. It will be found, also, that serious writers 
are more safe guides than those that indulge in satire ; 
for the satirist seeks for extremes. 

We say that writings of a philosophic or moral cast, 
and in which there occurs no allusion to events or to 
individual persons, may nevertheless be made available 
as the materials of history. — Two or three instances 
will show what we mean. We take our first example 
from a book which is as abstract in its form and style 
as any that could be found ; and give, in brief, the 
purport of a section on Magnanimity, in Aristotle's 
Ethics. 

Magnanimity, says Aristotle, is- a quality conversant 
with what is great. But what things are these ? He 
then may properly be termed magnanimous who deems 
himself worthy of great things, and who is so, in truth. 
For he who thus deems of himself without cause is a 
fool. He whose merits are equal only to a humbk 



376 INFEEENTIAL 

station, and who thus thinks of himself, is called wise, 
not magnanimous ; for magnanimity belongs to what 
is actually great. In like manner, as handsomeness 
belongs only to height of stature ; those who are small, 
may be comely, or symmetrical, but not handsome. 
On the other hand, one who falsely deems himself to 
possess great merit, is called vain — a term which can 
never properly belong to those who are truly great. 
Again ; one who under-rates his merits is mean-spirited, 
whether his real deserts be great, moderate, or slender ; 
since he still thinks that less than he possesses is his 
due : especially is he pusillanimous who thus disparages 
great qualities in himself ; for what would such a man 
do if destitute of that merit? He, therefore, who is 
truly magnanimous, is of necessity a good man ; and 
whatever there is great in any virtue belongs to him. 
It befits not him to flee, wringing his hands, nor to do 
wrong to any one ; for why should he commit unworthy 
actions to whom nothing great can be added ? — Where- 
fore this greatness of soul seems to be a sort of ornament 
to all the virtues — enhancing all of them, and not, by 
any means, consisting without them. True greatness 
of soul is therefore rare, since it demands the perfection 
of probity and goodness. Magnanimity is peculiarly 
displayed both in honour and in disgrace ; for the great 
man, when surrounded by opulence and by assiduous 
attendants, experiences only a moderate happiness ; 
since what he enjoys is not more than what befits him ; 
or perhaps, not so much ; for virtue can hardly ever be 
said to possess its due reward. The honours bestowed 



HISTORIC MATERIALS. 377 

upon liim he therefore calmly admits as being, though 
not equal to his merits, the utmost that those around 
him have to bestow ; while ordinary or mean praises he 
utterly contemns ; for of such he deems himself unde- 
serving. In like manner he despises disgrace ; for he 
knows that it is unjustly cast upon him. Thus, in 
prosperity he is not elated ; in adversity not dejected. 

Without attempting to draw inferences too far from 
a passage like this, it may fairly be said to indicate the 
existence of popular notions of moral greatness, more 
refined than those of nations merely warlike ; and far 
exalted above those of a people — merely commercial. 
The writer must, in his own country, have seen examples 
of heroic virtue which approached the perfect image he 
exhibits. One is not surprised to learn that he belonged 
to the race which produced Aristides, Cimon, Epami- 
nondas, and Phocion. It is observable that Aristotle's 
magnanimous man is decked only with the honours that 
befit a citizen^ or a distinguished leader in a republic — 
not with the gaudy shows of oriental despotism : it is 
not deemed a becoming part of his hero's glory that 
millions of his species should lay in the dust at his feet. 
We may also fairly remark, that this acute thinker had 
evidently no idea of that peculiar sentiment which is 
engendered, in great minds, by an habitual reference to 
the moral attributes of the Deity : his hero is a purely 
mundane person ; or, if we might so accommodate the 
term — he is atheistical. Neither did his notion of moral 
greatness include that humility which springs from a 
sense of delinquency, or imperfection, in the sight of the 



378 INFERENTIAL 

Supreme Lawgiver and Judge. If ideas of this class 
had at all been known to the Greeks of that age, or if they 
had come within the writer's view, he would assuredly 
have included them among his definitions, whether he 
thought them worthy of commendation, or not so. For 
his manner is to omit no abstract idea that bears any 
relation to his topic. 

To what extent sentiments like those mentioned by 
Aristotle were prevalent in his times, it is. not easy to 
ascertain from the passage just quoted ; since the treatise 
in which it appears is of an abstract, not of a hortatory 
character ; yet it contains one expression which, on the 
principle of our present argument, we should call a term 
of measurement ; he says, that true magnanimity is ex- 
ceedingly rare, or hard to be attained ; in other words, 
that it was much easier to find, among the writer's 
countrymen, an Alcibiades than an Epaminondas. 
But the historical significance of a passage like this will 
best appear by bringing it into comparison with a quo- 
tation, on a similar topic, from the most eminent of the 
Koman moralists. 

Cicero's Treatise, De Officiis, is abstract rather than 
hortatory ; and yet, compared with the Ethics of Aris- 
totle, it is less metaphysical, and it approaches nearer to 
the modern idea of a practical work. Without design- 
edly painting the manners, or formally estimating the 
morals of his times, this great writer furnishes, in his 
various compositions, many indications from which the 
state of both may be inferred. Of all social bonds, none, 
he says, can be found more weighty or more dear, than 



HISTORIC MATERIALS. 37^ 

that which binds each one of us to our country. Dear 
are our parents, dear our children, relatives, friends; 
but in our country are centred the endearments of all — 
for which, what good man would hesitate to die, if his 
death might promote its interests ? Whence the more 
detestable is the ferocity of those who, by every crime, 
rend their country ; and who have ever been busied in 
accomplishing its ruin. Actions performed magnani- 
mously and courageously we are wont to applaud, as it 
were, with a fuller mouth. Hence the themes of orators 
on Marathon, Salamis, Platsea, Thermopyl^, Leuctra; 
hence our Codes, hence the Decii, hence Cnseus and 
Publius Scipio, hence Marcellus, and others without 
number; for the Koman people especially excels in 
greatness of soul. Indeed, our love of military glory i& 
declared by the fact, that our statues are adorned with 
the garb of the warrior. But that elevation of soul 
which displays itself in dangers and labours, if it wants 
probity — if it contends not for public, but private ad- 
vantages, becomes a vice. 'Not merely is it not a virtue, 
but is rather to be deemed a ferocity — repulsive to human 
nature. Well therefore is fortitude defined by the Stoics,. 
when they say, it is ^ virtue defending right.' Where- 
fore no man who has attained the praise of fortitude has 
been renowned for treachery or mischief; for nothing 
can be laudable which is unjust. Those, therefore, are 
to be esteemed valiant and magnanimous, not who com- 
mit, but who repress wrongs. That true and wise great- 
ness of soul, which is indeed laudable and consonant to 
nature, regards deeds more than fame ; and would rather 



380 INFERENTIAL 

Ibe, than seem illustrious. And lie is not to be reckoned 
among great men wlio is dependent upon tlie erring 
opinion of the thoughtless multitude. For lofty spirits, 
always thirsting for glory, are easily driven on to what 
is unjust. And it is indeed hard to find one who, while 
he undergoes labours and dangers, does not seek glory 
as the wages of his exploits." 

In these expressions there is conspicuous that para- 
mount passion — the love of country, which belonged so 
peculiarly to the Eoman people^ — which was a principal 
cause of the growth of their power, and which, though 
then on the wane, was not extinct in the age when the 
state ceased to be free : — no good man would hesitate to 
die for his country's good — this was a sentiment more 
characteristic of the Komans than of the Greeks. The 
Grecian chiefs not seldom betrayed their country for 
gold ; those of Kome, scarcely ever. Then the military 
spirit is much more prominent in the one instance than 
in the other. Cicero's great man is, of course, a warrior ; 
Aristotle's is a statesman : the Roman obtains glo^^y ; 
the Greek, honour, dignity. The one^ if destitute of 
probity, becomes the factious destroyer of his country, 
and is regardless of dangers and toils : the other — merely 
vain. The Greeks addicted themselves to war to defend 
their liberties, and to determine their intestine quarrels ; 
but the Romans did so from the innate love of combat, 
and the insatiable desire of conquest. Both moralists 
make true virtue essential to true magnanimity ; but the 
Greek proves this necessary connexion on abstract prin- 
ciples ; the Eoman insists that utility must be made the 



HISTORIC MATERIALS. 381 

ultimate rule of conduct ; and tMs principle is expressive 
of that practical feeling in which the Romans so much 
excelled the Greeks. If then, by some error, the pas- 
sages above quoted were attributed — each to the other 
writer, a reader well acquainted, with the history of the 
two people, would not fail to detect the incongruity of 
the sentiments and the phraseology. The two authors 
hold essentially the same opinions ; but the one thinks 
like the companion of sophists, the other like the friend 
of soldiers. This perceptible difference between the two 
is an index to the Mstorical significance of both. 

We shall now cite a passage on a subject not very 
dissimilar, from a modern writer; and the reader will 
perceive that a great change and improvement has taken 
place in the sentiments of mankind, between the times 
of the ancient writers and the modern. 

The duty (of respecting the natural equality of men) 
says Puffendorf, is violated by pride or arrogance, which 
leads a man, without cause, or without sufficient cause, 
to prefer himself to others, and to contemn them as not 
on a level with himself. We say without cause; for 
when a man rightfully demands that which gives him 
pre-eminence over others, he may properly exercise and 
maintain that advantage — yet avoiding absurd ostenta^ 
tion or contempt of others. As, on the other hand, any 
one properly renders honour or preference to whom it 
is due. But a true generosity or greatness of soul is 
always accompanied by a certain seemly humility, which 
springs from the reflection we make upon the infirmity 
of our nature, and the faults which heretofore we may 



382 INFEEENTIAL 

have committed, or whicli yet we may commit, and 

are not less than those of other men It is a 

still greater offence for a man to make known his 
contempt for others by external signs, as by actions, 
words, gestures, a laugh, or any other contumelious 
behaviour. This offence is to be deemed so much the 
greater, inasmuch as it so excites the minds of others 
to wrath and the desire of revenge. Thus it is that 
many may be found who would rather put their life in 
immediate peril, and much rather break amity with 
their neighbours, than sustain an unrevenged affront. 
Since, by this means, honour and reputation are injured, 
the unblemished integrity of which is essential to peace 
of mind. 

The latter sentences of this passage preclude the idea 
that the writer lived in times when a sordid, or servile 
insensibility to reputation had extinguished those senti- 
ments to which so much importance, and so much merit, 
was attributed by ancient warlike nations. At the same 
time, the first part of it contains a corrective sentiment, 
of which scarcely a trace is to be found in any of the 
Greek or Eoman writers^a sentiment plainly arising 
from an enhancement of the notion of moral respon' 
sihility, and from a far higher estimate of the nature of 
virtue. In other words, the two first quoted writers 
were polytheists ; the last was a Christian. 

Our next instance is taken from the Enchiridion of 
Epictetus. The icy sophism of the Stoics had found 
some admirers at Rome before the times when the 
ancient republican severity of manners had disappeared. 



HISTORIC MATEEIALS. 383 

But theoretical stoicism does not reach its perfection till 
some time after practical stoicism has become ohsolete. 
It is a reaction in the moral world, produced by the 
rank exuberance of luxury, sensuality, effeminacy, and 
the arrogance of preposterous wealth. If, therefore, the 
date of the Enchiridion were unknown, it would be 
more safely attributed to the times of Domitian, than to 
the age of Cincinnatus, or of Cato. In reading the fol- 
lowing passage one may readily imagine the lame sage,* 
wrapping himself in his spare blanket, and his ample 
self-complacency, as he makes his way — unnoticed, 
through the insolence and voluptuousness of imperial 
Rome. 

— If it ever happens to thee to turn from thy path 
with the intent to gratify any one, know that thou hast 
lost thy institute {i.e. forsaken thy rule). Let it be 
enough for thee, on all occasions, to be — a philosopher. 
But if, indeed, thou desirest to seem a philosopher, look 
to thyself, and be content with that. Let not such 
thoughts as these trouble thee — I live without honours, 
and am no where accounted of. . . . Is some one pre- 
ferred to thee at table, or saluted before thee, or con- 
sulted before thee? If these things are goods, thou 
oughtest to congratulate him to whose lot they fall ; if 
they are ills, do not grieve because they have not be- 
fallen thee. But remember, that as thou dost not pay 
attention to those things by which exterior advantages 
are obtained, it cannot be that they should be given 

* Servus Epictetus sum natus ; corjpore claudus, 
Irus pauperie, delicise Superum. 



384 INFERENTIAL 

thee. For how can lie who stays at home fare the same 
as he who goes abroad ? — or can the same things happen 
to him who is obsequious, and to him who is not ? — to 
him who praises, and to him who praises not ? Thou 
wilt be unjust and greedy if, without having paid the 
price at which these things are sold, thou dost expect 
to receive them freely. Now, what is the price of 
a lettuce ? — say a farthing : one therefore pays his 
farthing, and takes his lettuce ; but thou dost not pay, 
and dost not take. Think not thyself in worse condition 
than he. For as he has his lettuce, so thou hast the 
farthing thou didst not pay. And thus it is in other 
things. — Thou hast not paid the price at which an invi- 
tation to a feast is sold : for he who makes a feast sells 
invitations for flattery — for obsequiousness. Give then 
the price, if thou thinkest the bargain to thy advantage. 
But if thou likest not to afford the cost, and yet wouldst 
receive the things, thou art at once greedy and foolish. 
And hast thou then nothing instead of the feast ? Yes, 
truly ; thou hast this, that thou didst not commend one 
whom thou didst not approve; nor hast thou had to 
bear his insolence on entering his halls. 

Many admirable sentiments are to be found in the 
writings of Epictetus; though, for a portion of them, there 
may be reason to believe he was indebted to Christianity, 
of which obligation he makes no acknowledgment. The 
treatise from which this passage is derived furnishes an 
example of that laborious and unsuccessful conflicting 
of pride with pride, which is natural to men of superior 
intelligence, who occupy an inferior condition, and are 



HISTORIC MATERIALS. 385 

surrounded by vulgar insolence, servility, and pro- 
fligacy. There was evidently a class of persons in the 
author's time in circumstances like his own — that is to 
say — intellectualists, who, as a defence against the scorn 
of worldlings, put on a mail of steely logic. 

The Enchiridion, if regarded as a material of history, 
may fairly support the inference that, in the writer's 
time, wealth and luxury had triumphed over stern prin- 
ciples and severe manners ; — that the philosophical cha- 
racter had ceased to command general respect, as it did 
at Athens in the age of Plato; — and that philosophy 
itself, having passed its prime, was fast becoming palsied 
and querulous. 

A comparison, at once curious and instructive, might 
be drawn between two writers who, at first sight, may 
seem too unlike to be named together — Epictetus and 
Thomas a Kempis. Yet quotations from the Enchi- 
ridion and the De Imitatione, might be adduced in 
proof of a real affinity. There is even a similarity in 
the form of the two works ; for both writers, in a style 
of severe and laconic simplicity, address their pointed 
aphorisms — now to themselves, now to their half-refrac- 
tory disciple, much in the manner of a nurse, upbraid- 
ing a pettish child. A monotony, both of principle and 
of toj)ics, pervades both books. Both authors compel 
Wisdom to ascend the summit of a snow-girt peak, 
where she can be neither approached, nor even heard, 
by the mass of mankind. Both writers were in fact, 
though on widely different principles, not only recluses 
rom the ordinary walks of human life, but recusants of 

C C 



386 INFEEENTIAL 

the common emotions of our nature. And both, by an 
implicit contrast, exhibit the falling condition of the 
social system of their times. Yet there is this difference 
between the two, that while the Stoic presents to view 
the darkness of paganism, enlivened by a glimmer from 
Christianity, the Monk holds forth the brightness of 
Christian truth, dimmed by the errors of superstition. 

The moral treatises of Plutarch are of a practical, 
more than of a philosophical kind, and they yield there- 
fore abundant indications, as well of the opinions, as of 
the manners of his age. In truth, the student of history 
would hardly need other aid in ascertaining the religious 
and moral sentiments of the times of Trajan, than he 
may find in the pages of this writer. Among this 
author's moral pieces there is one that is curious, and 
valuable too, as a material of history — namely, the 
tract on Superstition — the dread of dcemons. With great 
force of language and aptness of illustration, he depicts 
the mental torments of the man who believes the gods 
to be malignant, inexorable, and capricious ; and he 
contrasts this unhappy temper with the comparatively 
harmless error of those bolder spirits who cast away 
altogether the belief and fear of supernal beings ; and 
while he recommends " the mean of piety," he decidedly 
prefers atheism to superstition. 

What say you? — The man who thinks there are no 
gods is impious ? But is not he who thinks them to 
be cruel and malignant, chargeable with an opinion 
that is much more impious? For my own part, 
I would rather that men should say, * There is no 



HISTORIC MATERIALS. 387 

such person as Plutarch,' than that they should affirm 
that Plutarch is a man capricious, instable, prone to 
wrath, revengeful of accidental afironts, pettish; one 
who, if you have neglected to invite him with others to 
a feast, or if, being otherwise engaged, you have failed 
to salute him at your gate, will devour you, or seize 
and torture your son ; or will send a beast, which he 
keeps for the purpose, to ravage your fields. 

Plutarch speaks of four states of mind, as known 
and existing in his times — namely, 1. The wise piety, 
which he recommends, and which forms the medium 
between superstition and atheism. — 2. The joyous or 
■festive worship of the gods, in which he sees nothing to 
reprehend. — 3. A bold rejection of all religion, which 
he thinks an error, though an innocent error : — and 4. 
Superstition, which is not merely an error, but a prac- 
tical evil of the worst kind. Of the first he says almost 
nothing ; nor does he ofier a single hint explanatory of 
the mode in which the gods and goddesses of the Grreek 
mythology might be made the objects of a devout and 
reasonable piety : — and yet piety without a god, must 
be an unmeaning term. Plutarch's piety is a vague 
sentiment, which he feels to be proper to human nature, 
and highly beneficial ; but which was absolutely desti- 
tute of solid ground, or certainty; for no invisible being 
or beings were known to him whom he could both love 
and fear. Even if the philosopher, by a course ot 
doubtful reasonings, might work out for himself an idea 
of the Deity, such as might keep alive the sentiment of 
piety, no such abstruse notion could be brought within 
cc 2 



388 INFEEENTIAL 

the appreliension of the vulgar. What is there then left 
to the vulgar ? — not atheism — for that is an error : — not 
superstition ; for that is a tormenting mischief: — nothing 
remains but the festive worship of the gods ; and this, 
with all its impurities, and all its follies, was the only 
portion that could be assigned to the millions of man- 
kind : — Plutarch knew of no alternative on which to 
found the religious sentiments of men. Yet on another 
occasion he expresses his opinion strongly as to the ne- 
cessity of religion for the support of the social system. — 
It seems to me that it were easier to build a city without 
a foundation, than to construct or to preserve a polity, 
from which all belief of the gods should be removed. 
Yet how great soever were ' the evils of atheism, he 
deemed those arising from superstition to be greater. 
According to his testimony, when the only theology 
known to the Greeks took possession of timid minds, 
it rendered life intolerably burdensome. — Of all kinds 
of fear, none produces such incurable despondency and 
perplexity as superstition. He who never goes on board 
a ship, does not fear the sea ; nor he the combat, who is 
not a soldier ; nor he the robbers, who stays at home ; 
nor does the poor man fear informers, nor he who is 
low, the eye of envy ; nor he who inhabits Gaul, 
earthquakes ; nor the Ethiopian, the thunderbolt. But 
the man who dreads the gods, dreads all things ; — the 
earth, the sea, the air, the heavens, darkness, light, 
noise, silence, dreams. The slave in slumber forgets his 
master, the captive his chain, the wounded and the dis- 
eased their anguish : — kind sleep, friend of the sufferer, 



HISTORIC MATERIALS. 389 

liow sweet are thy visits ! But superstition admits not 
even this solace ; it accepts no truce, it gives no breathing 
time to the mind, nor permits the spirits to rally or to 
dispel its harsh and grievous surmises. But like the 
very region of the wicked, so the dreams of the super- 
stitious man ahound with terrific apparitions, and fatal 
portents : and this passion, always inflicting punish- 
ments upon the distracted spirit, scares the man from 
sleep by visions. And he— self-tortured, believes him- 
self obliged to comply with fearful and monstrous 
behests. Such a man, when he awakes, instead of 
contemning his dreams, or smiling with pleasure in 
finding that what had disturbed him has no reality, still 
flies before an innoxious shadow, while at the same time 
he is substantially deluded by falling into the hands of 
conjurers and impostors, who strip him of his money, 
and impose upon him various penances. 

The tortures inflicted upon timid spirits by the 
Grecian polytheism are depicted with not less force by 
the observant Theophrastus. — Superstition is a de- 
sponding dread of divinities (daemons). The supersti- 
tious man, having washed his hands in the sacred font^ 
and being well sprinkled with holy water from the temple, 
takes a leaf of laurel in his mouth, and walks about 
with it all the day. If a weasel cross his path, he will 
not proceed until some one has gone before him, or 
until he has thrown three stones across the way. If he 
sees a serpent in the house, he builds a chapel on the 
spot. When he passes the consecrated stones, placed 
where three ways meet, he is careful to pour oil from his 



390 INFERENTIAL 

cruet upon tliem : then falling upon his knees, he wor- 
ships, and retires. A mouse, perchance, has gnawed a 
hole in a flour- sack : away he goes to the seer, to know 
what it behoves him to do ; and if he is simply- 
answered, 'Send it to the cobbler to be patched,' he 
views the business in a more serious light, and running 
home, he devotes the sack as an article no more to be 
used. He is occupied in frequent purifications of his 
house ; saying that it has been invaded by Hecate. If 
in his walks an owl flies past, he is horror-struck, and 
exclaims — Thus comes the divine Minerva. He is 
careful not to tread upon a tomb, or to approach a 
corpse; saying that it is profitable to him to avoid 
every pollution. On the fourth and seventh days of the 
month, he directs mulled wine to be prepared for his 
family ; and going himself to purchase myrtles and 
frankincense, he returns, and spends the day in crown- 
ing the statues of Mercury and Venus. As often as he 
has a dream, he runs to the interpreter, the soothsayer, 
or the augur, to inquire what god or goddess he ought 
to propitiate. Before he is initiated in the mysteries, 
he attends to receive instruction every month, accom- 
panied by his wife, or by the nurse and his children. 
Whenever he passes a cross-way, he bathes his head. 
For the benefit of a special purification, he invites the 
priestesses to his house, who, while he stands reverently 
in the midst of them, bear about him an onion, or a 
little dog. If he encounters a lunatic, or a man in a fit, 
Ja.Q shudders horrifically, and spits in his bosom. 

The four centuries that had intervened between 



HISTORIC MATERIALS. 391 

Theoplirastus and Plutarcli, during whicli a philoso- 
phical atheism had spread widely among the educated 
classes, had not, it appears, lessened the terrific influence 
of the Grecian polytheism over melancholy minds. On 
the contrary, it seems to have been enhanced rather 
than diminished ; for the language of Plutarch is stronger 
than that of Theophrastus. The verisimilitude of both 
descriptions, and their accordance, leave no room to 
doubt that this effect of the religious belief of the 
Greeks was of frequent or ordinary occurrence among 
them. Indeed there is reason to think that few persons 
of serious temper, even though imbued with the spirit 
of the sceptical philosophy, could free themselves from 
the burdensome scrupulosities and the horrific fears 
which attend every form of polytheism, and from which 
neither the refinement, nor the scepticism, nor the volup- 
tuousness, nor the frivolity, nor the good taste^ nor the 
subtile reasonings of the Greeks, could emancipate the 
devotees of their religion. The philosophic Julian 
might be named in illustration of this assertion. Beside 
his hatred of Christianity, his conduct was evidently 
influenced on many occasions by a very honest dread of 
the capricious daemons whose falling interests he so 
zealously upheld : witness his magical practices. 

It will be seen that passages such as those above 
quoted, possess a substantial value, when brought to 
their place among the materials of history. Ethical 
writers reflect the image of the principles and the man- 
ners of their times. In some instances we may infer too 
much; in others may mistake a partial for a general 



392 INFERENTIAL 

representation; but if, with due caution, we review a 
Avide field of ethical literature, the general result of 
such an induction cannot differ much from truth. 

If, for example, from the entire series of Greek 
writers, all passages of a purely ethical kind were to be 
extracted, and were arranged in chronological order, the 
collection would afford the means of ascertaining, not 
only the system of morals and religion that was known 
to that people, but also the actual state of morals and 
manners, as it varied from age to age. With such 
materials before us, there would be less room for con- 
jectui-e, and less danger of error, in determining the 
moral condition of the people, than is found in ascertain- 
ing the extent of their political power, or the amount of 
their national wealth. Upon ethical passages, such as 
those we have adduced above, one fact presents itself — 
namely, that in the profane authors there is little of 
direct admonition or reproof, and rarely an appeal to 
a recognised standard of right. The reason is obvious. 
The Greek and Roman ethical writers discuss questions 
of morality in the tone proper to a learned disquisition, 
each saying the best things in the best manner he could : 
— no man was authorized to do more than propose his 
opinion : no feeling of official responsibility, no high soli^ 
citude, gave seriousness or force to his manner. Morals 
were not founded upon religion : on the contrary, an 
ethical treatise, containing the expression of reason and 
conscience, was at once a virtual refutation of the national 
theology, and a sarcasm upon the gods. Especially it 
is to be observed, that the instruction and reformation 



HISTORIC MATERIALS. 393 

of the mass of mankind entered not into the contempla- 
tion of moralists and philosophers, who, while they 
amused one another with eloquent disquisitions, were 
not troubled bj the thought that the millions of their 
fellow-men remained, from age to age, untaught in 
wisdom and virtue. 

Not so was it with the people of Palestine. Not 
philosophy, but morality, was paramount ; and morality 
was taught in its dependence upon religion. And it was 
not to a small class in the community, but to the people 
at large, that ethical writings were addressed : — and it 
was not for amusement, but for reproof, that they were 
so addressed : — and these writers, instead of propound- 
ing their individual opinions, and supporting those 
opinions by abstract reasonings, took the short course of 
appealing to a known standard of right and wrong. 
They speak to their fellow-men as from on high, and in 
the tone of authority ; and each acquits himself, with 
gravity, of a weighty responsibility. From the writers 
of Palestine the modern Western nations have learned 
the style of instruction, admonition, and reproof, and 
this can have its origin, and derive its force, and 
maintain its influence, only from a Divine Eevelation, 
entrusted to the administration of human agents. 

But our present object leads us to remark that, 
whether or not this peculiarity of the Jewish and Chris- 
tian writings be attributed to their Divine origination, it 
renders them far more available as historical documents, 
than are the writings of other ancient nations. For in- 
asmuch as these compositions unite the several qualities 



394 INFERENTIAL 

of being authoritative^ hortative^ Bud popular ^ they leave 
nothing to be wished for in ascertaining, either the 
moral level of the writer's mind, or the actual level of 
manners in his times. It is evident that an appeal to a 
fixed standard, and an admonitory application of its 
known rules to the existing practices of the people, 
completes the requisite data of the historical problem 
above-mentioned. In the standard we have a known 
quantity; and in the hortatory forms of address, we 
have a mean of measurement, by which the actual state 
of morals may be ascertained. 

An inquiry of this kind, if pursued in its details, 
would prove the existence and operation of an ethical 
system, so pure and perfect, that all after nations to 
whom it has been made known, have found nothing left 
to them but to admire and adopt its principles. What 
can the modern moralist do but work up the mate- 
rials which he finds ready to his hand in the New 
Testament? To devise a new theology, or to invent a 
new morality — which should recommend itself to the 
common sense of mankind, would be as impracticable 
as to propose a new set of mathematical axioms. Truth 
is single and simple ; and when once discovered, it must 
be adopted and followed. As a matter of history, it 
appears that the writers of ancient Palestine have taken 
possession of the regions of religion and morality. 

But it would be practicable to ascertain, not only the 
system of morals taught by the Jewish and Christian 
writers ; but the actual state of morals among those 
whom they immediately addressed. The Hebrew 



HISTORIC MATERIALS. 395 

prophets furnisli ample means for pursuing sucli an 
inquiry ; but the unstudied earnestness of the Apostles, 
and especially the epistolary form of their compositions, 
would render the task of the inquirer easy, and conclu- 
sive in its results. In an argument of this kind we 
should not be entitled to conclude that the persons 
addressed were blameless in their lives— because their 
teachers address them as " Saints" — a conventional term. 
Our inferences must be of a less ambiguous kind. We 
must assume nothing but what is necessary to give 
consistency to the writer's assertions :— in other words, 
we are to assume just as much as is found to be safe 
and reasonable in the interpretation of any ancient 
author. 

In the Epistles to the Galatians and the Corinthians, 
we find proof that Paul was not the man to spare the 
faults or errors of those to whom he wrote ; and each 
of his letters affords some evidence as well of his quick- 
sightedness, as of his sincerity. Men will more easily 
bear to be charged with vices, or with evil tempers, 
than to be reproached for dulness of apprehension : 
but in an Epistle addressed, as it seems, to the better- 
informed class of his own nation, he does not hesitate to 
blame their inaptitude and non-proficiency. (Heb. v. 
11, 14.) Instances of a similar kind are the character- 
istics of the writer's manner. 

If a father in writing to a son addresses him in the 
language of approving affection ; and if his admonitions 
relate only to the graces of an amiable deportment and 
temper, it is fair to conclude that the character of the son 



396 INFERENTIAL 

is unstained Ly grievous vices ; for such a letter would 
not be addressed by a wise parent to a son wlio was 
" wasting bis substance in riotous living." This infer- 
ence would be confirmed, if we found the same father 
writing to another son in terms of mingled affection, 
remonstrance, and severe reproof; and that he urged 
upon him, with pungent persuasions, the virtues of 
justice and temperance. Now it is an inference of this 
kind that we are entitled to draw from Paul's Epistles. 
In some of them he discharges the painful duty of 
administering stern reproof on points of common 
morality ; and in these instances he carries the require- 
ments of virtue as far as can be imagined possible ; and 
he enforces his injunctions by the most awful sanctions. 
Such is the writer, and such is his system of morals. 
But the same moralist, in addressing other societies, 
writes in the style of a happy father to an exemplary 
son. The Epistles to the Philippians, the Thessalo- 
nians, and the Ephesians are of this kind; and the 
inference is this — that these societies were in a state not 
far below the writer's own standard of morals. In every 
society there will be a diversity of character, and in 
every numerous society there will be those to whom a 
wise teacher will address strongly-worded cautions, on 
the prime articles of morality. So it is in these Epistles; 
and the passages are vouchers for the writer's con- 
sistency and faithfulness. These more serious admoni- 
tions are, however, manifestly addressed to a minority^ 
or to an individual ; or they are directed to persons 
who are not within the pale of the society. 



HISTOEIC MATERIALS. 397 

A passage so often quoted (Phil. iv. 8) might be 
compared to the last sedulous touches of an accomplished 
artist, who having completed an excellent piece of work, 
reluctantly withdraws his hand while it seems yet pos- 
sible to add a higher lustre to its polish. Passages like 
these, from such a writer, whose discrimination and 
whose sincerity are proved, afford the best kind of 
evidence in attestation of purity of manners among the 
Christians of Philippi. 

Other of the Epistles of Paul, as well as those of 
James, Peter, and John, furnish instances to the same 
effect. The result of bringing them forward would be 
proof irrefragable, that the teaching of the apostles had 
produced a high degree of conformity to that new and 

refined standard of morals which they promulgated : 

it would show that, in many cities of the Eoman world, 
where, formerly, nothing had been seen but shameless 
dissoluteness, and abominable idolatries ; or, at the best, 
Jewish sanctimoniousness, or philosophical pride, socie- 
ties were formed, which had been collected chiefly from 
the humbler classes, and in which the full loveliness of 
virtue was suddenly generated and expanded, and pro- 
duced its fruits. Not only were the gods expelled by 
the new doctrine, but the vices also. 

Facts and inferences of this kind have often been 
brought forward by writers who have taken up the 
Christian argument : we in this place are not taking up 
that argument as if it were our subject and purpose in 
this volume. The facts above briefly referred to, and 
the inferences that are thence derivable, fairly challenge 



398 INFERENTIAL HISTORIC MATERIALS. 

for themselves a place as belonging to a summary of 
the method or process of historical proof. For if we 
affirm that various passages occurring in the ethical 
writings of Aristotle, and of Cicero, and of Epictetus, 
and of Theophrastus, and of Plutarch, are highly signi- 
ficant, as materials of history, it must be proper also to 
show that the apostolic Epistles — ethical as they are — 
come within the same range, and should be duly 
regarded as authentic evidences, touching the moral 
condition of the community within which they were 
circulated, and involving therefore the truth and the 
excellence of the religion which then spread itself 
throughout the Eoman world. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

THE MODERN JERUSALEM — A VOUCHER FOR THE 
LITERATURE OF ITS ANCIENT OCCUPANTS. 

In the twelfth chapter of this volume, and particularly 
at p. 141 and to the end, we have referred to those monu- 
ments of ancient art — buildings, sculptures, coins, 
which, as materials of history, are available in confirm- 
ing or correcting the statements of ancient writers ; and 
again in the twentieth chapter, we have brought forward 
(as samples only) some instances in which the existing 
remains of antiquity may be appealed to, as vouchers 
for the truthfulness of one of these writers — Herodotus. 

Then in the fourteenth chapter we have seen what is 
the relative strength of that evidence which vouches 
for the genuineness and for the authenticity of the 
Holy Scriptures, as compared with that on the ground 
of which classical literature is accepted as real, and 
trustworthy. The superiority which we have claimed 
for the canonical writings results from : — 1. The number 
of copies that have come down to modern times. 2. The 
high antiquity of some of these extant manuscripts. 
3. The extent of geographical surface over which copie 
were diffused at an early date. 4. The importance 



400 THE MODERN JERUSALEM 

attaclied to tliem by their possessors. 5. The reverential 
care with which manuscripts were executed. 6. The 
separation, and the mutual hostility of those in whose 
custody the books were conserved. 7. The visible 
influence of the writings upon the conduct and opinions 
of nations, from age to age. 8. The mass, and the 
intricacy of quotations from them. 9. The existence of 
ancient versions. 10. The vernacular extinction of 
the languages in which the books were written. 11. The 
means of comparison with spurious and imitative books. 
12. The strength of the inference derivable from the 
genuineness of the books, to the credibility of their con- 
tents. The facts referred to under these twelve heads 
well deserve the reader's careful attention, and with 
this view they are here recapitulated. 

But now there is one ground of comparison, quite 
proper to an argument of this sort, to omit all allusion 
to which might seem to indicate a consciousness of 
weakness ; for, on the ground which is now in view, 
there is an apparent advantage largely on the side of 
classical literature, and profane history. Let us then 
look into this defective portion, as it may seem, of the 
Biblical evidence, and measure its actual importance. 

With this purpose in view, we return, for an hour, to 
the British Museum. In passing through these saloons 
we find ourselves visibly confronted with the memorials 
of each of the principal developments of ancient civili- 
zation ; and with some also of those that were very 
limited, and obscure, and temporary. Ample and mul- 
tifarious, and admirable are the monuments — in marble 



AND ITS ANCIENT PEOPLE. 401 

and in metal, of what tlie men of other countries have 
been, and of what they have done, in ages so long gone 
bj. Here, for instance, is the Egypt of three or four 
thousand years ago — its people, and their employments; 
and here its despotisms, its dynasties — so many — are set 
forth in their gigantic semblances ; and we may actually 
touch surfaces that were chiselled and polished at the time 
when— or before that time, Abraham was journeying from 
Mesopotamia towards Canaan. Here also is the Assyrian 
despot, and here the Babylonian and the mighty builder, 
and the lord of fifty nations — here they now hold their 
court, and show us before what glories, and what terrors 
it was that millions of men bent the knee, and kissed the 
dust, in the times of Samuel, and of Solomon, and of 
Hezekiah. Here are substantial displays of the earliest 
developments of the human mind, under wholly diffe- 
rent conditions — physical, social, political. Here are the 
earliest conceptions of Greek taste, intelligence, and free 
ideality ; all these are vouched for ; and mementos are 
before us of the Lycian people also, and of the Lydian, 
and of the Etruscan; and as we come down to later times, 
Greek art, and Roman art, bring us into familiar corre- 
spondence, not only with national characteristics, but 
with the individual persons of those ages. Now, during 
those times, the people of Palestine were passing from 
the lower to the upper culminating point of their national 
existence. Where, then, in this great assemblage of the 
nations of antiquity — where is Palestine? Are there 
none here to represent her, and to challenge a place for 
a people whose literature has pervaded the civilised 

D D 



402 THE MODEEN JERUSALEM 

world ? Tlie books of the people of Palestine are in 
every home — in every sacred edifice — they are found in 
palaces, and in cottages, and they are treasured near 
to the hearts of the good — high and low, and are 
extant in the memories of all. Why then should not 
the men of Palestine, and why should not its religious 
rites, be represented in the marbles, and in the metals, 
of our museums? 

It may indeed be said that the ancient Palestine is 
not altogether absent from the museums of Europe ; for 
among tens of thousands of samples of the mintages of 
antiquity, there are found a few coins of the Maccabean 
times, with their innocent and homely symbols ; and in 
the series of the Imperial coins there are some vouchers 
for the fact of the overthrow of the Jewish state; there 
is the woman seated by the palm — the representative of 
the Judaea Devicta. Need we ask the reason of this 
absence of sculptured memorials of this one among the 
nations of antiquity? — The want of sculpture is, in 
truth, this people's glory; the absence of the vouchers 
we might look for is indeed a voucher, attesting the 
noblest of all distinctions — that of having so long pos- 
sessed and maintained, a free social polity, and a true 
theology. 

If at this time an order were given to remove from 
the British Museum all memorials of the cruel tyran- 
nies, and of the sensual idolatries of Egypt, and of 
Assyria, and of Greece, and of Eome — if every article 
were expelled that gives evidence of the oppressive 
despotisms, or of the vicious religions of ancient nations, 



AND ITS ANCIENT PEOPLE. 403 

how meagre an exhibition would remain after sucli a 
clearance had been effected ! It is therefore this people's 
glory — a glory unrivalled — that no sculptures are extant 
to represent it in the museums of Europe ! Nevertheless, 
there are monuments of its history to be found, if we 
look for them where it is reasonable to make the search ; 
namely, in Palestine itself, and at Jerusalem especially. 

A few — say five or six — of the principal cities of 
antiquity, have continued to be inhabited from the 
very earliest times to this time ; — such are — Damascus, 
Constantinople, Athens, Eome, and Jerusalem. The 
consequences of this uninterrupted occupation of the 
same sites, have been — more or less so in each instance 
— such as these — the preservation of some of the most 
ancient basement structures; the superposition of the 
structures of each age, in layers or deposits, resembling 
the strata of the earth's crust; the commingling of 
older materials with the more recent buildings in the 
mason's work ; and, generally, the creation of a modern 
town, lifted up, as one might say, upon the head and 
shoulders of the ancient city. Such cities, in exploring 
which we find evidence of their having undergone these 
several conditions, may fitly be called — HiSTOEiCAL 
Cities ; and from these sources alone — or if there were 
none else available — we might gather abundant mate- 
rials, adapted to the purpose of illustrating the written 
history of nations, and of giving to it the most conclu- 
sive confirmations. 

The briefest exemplification of what we here affirm, 
taking up two or three instances only, would occupy a 
dd2 



404 THE MODERN JERUSALEM 

great space. The educated reader does not need to be 
told what has actually been done, in this way, in regard 
to Athens and Rome. Something of the same kind has, 
also, within a few years, been effected in relation to 
Jerusalem ; but in this instance very much remains to 
be done ; and much will undoubtedly be effected, at no 
distant time, when the Turkish guardianship of Palestine 
shall have ceased ; or when Mahometan jealousy shall 
have given way to European intelligence. We advert 
to this instance, in concluding this volume, because it 
properly brings into view — at once, the several kinds of 
facts and statements which belong to our argument. 

It is thus, then, that we bring the modern Jerusalem 
into our prospect. Two short periods excepted — after 
the capture and overthrow of the city — Jerusalem has 
been inhabited, continuously, throughout a period of 
three thousand years; and during all that length of 
time a written history has attended its fortunes, even 
from the earliest age, to this present time. If in this 
place indulgence might be given to a metaphor — and to 
such a metaphor — we should say that, looking at the 
entire mass of authentic history as an organic body, 
Jerusalem— the same hard material from age to age 
— is the vertebral stay of all history; or, in homely 
phrase, that this one city is the very back-bone of 
chronology. This is certain, and it has become more 
and more evident from year to year of late, that in 
every instance in which the leading events of the 
Hebrew and. Jewish history may be ascertained with 
precision, such fixed points send forth ribs which give 



AND ITS ANCIENT PEOPLE. 405 

support to tlie loose matters of Egyptian, and Assyrian, 
and Persian and Macedonian history. 

It is peculiar to this one ancient city to have passed 
under the hand, and to have been for a length of time 
in the occupation of each of the great empires that have 
had a place and a name in the world, during the course of 
three thousand years. Each of these powers has solidly 
monumented itself within, and about its walls. A narrow 
space indeed is this to contain the architectures of ten 
empires ; or, to be more precise, of seven empires, and of 
three royal holdings. Yet so it is ; and in attestation 
of the fact, and as a consequence of it, if at this 
moment we were fitting ourselves out for a six or 
twelve months' explorative sojourn in the Holy City, we 
should think it indispensable to pack our portmanteaus 
with books, ancient and modern, which, retrogressively 
catalogued, would include — I. The principal modern 
works or guide-books, which show what the Franks 
have done in recent times in the way of church-building, 
monasteries, hospitals, hospices, and private residen- 
cies. II. Such records as there may be (if any) of 
Turkish doings in the same or similar modes ; and 
much has been done by the pashas in the repairs of the 
walls, and in alterations and repairs within and around 
the Haram. III. The Arabic writers (they are more 
than a few), the post-Islamic, and the ante-Islamic — 
such as Abulfeda, and others, in whose writings inci- 
dental notices, at least, occur of the Saracenic structures 
of their *'A1 Kuds." There is much relating to the 
mosque of Omar, and of Al Aksa. lY. The entire mass 



408 THE MODERN JERUSALEM 

of the crusading histories — the writers who are brought 
together in that bulky folio, the '' Gesta Dei per 
Frankos." With these there must come very many 
writers of the fifteenth and following centuries, who 
treat of the topography of Palestine, such as Adri- 
chomius, in the "Theatrum Terrae Sanctas." Y. The 
Byzantine writers who touch upon the churches and 
monasteries of the Holy Land ; with Procopius, and his 
account of the buildings of Justinian : the early Itine- 
raries, Greek and Latin ; and among these Jerome must 
find his place. VI. Some of the Greek Fathers — Cjril of 
Jerusalem and Eusebius. VII. The Greek and Eoman 
profane historians, in series ; from whom we learn all 
that can be known of the fate and fortunes of the city 
after its overthrow, and during the years of its desecra- 
tion, as the ^lia Capitolina, by heathen temples and 
their impure rites. YIII. Josephus, and the Book of 
Maccabees, are our authority as to Herod's structures, 
of which many unquestionable remains are discernible 
among the ruins of the city. The same writer, and 
perhaps some of the rabbis, give the evidence that is 
required for interpreting the existing remains of the 
Asmonean period; thenceforward, or, we should say, 
higher up, it is — IX. To the Hebrew prophets and 
historians that we must look for the light we need, so far 
as the written memorials of the times of Ezra, Nehemiah, 
Hezekiah, Solomon, David, may afibrd it. 

Thus it appears that, in carrying forward those ex- 
plorations which already have in part been made, and 
which are now in progress, and which may be effected 



AND ITS ANCIENT PEOPLE. 407 

hereafter at Jerusalem, what we are doing, and what we 
shall yet be doing, is this — we are taking up the ancient 
written records of this citj, page after page, and we are 
verifying each of our authorities by aid of the architec- 
tural remains of the same times — even from the remotest 
periods, down to this age. It is this Jerusalem which; 
beyond any other ancient site, furnishes the means, and 
the material, for thus collating and verifying the literary 
records of a people, by means of its extant monuments. 
Architectural remains, such as those are which invite 
the labours of the antiquary at Athens, and at Rome, and 
at Jerusalem, require to be examined in relation to four 
distinguishable subjects ; — as first — the materials (in a 
geological sense) that have been employed ; and the 
question to be answered is — Whence have these been 
drawn — whether from quarries near at hand, or from a 
remote region ? The second of these inquiries relates to 
the style and quality of the masons work — that is to 
say, we have to note any peculiarity that may belong 
to the mode of squaring blocks of stone, and of fitting 
them one to another, and of placing them in layers ; 
or to the manufacture of bricks, if these are in question. 
The thtrd inquiry is properly architectural, and it has 
respect to the decorative style of the structure, and its 
aspect, and its beauty, considered as a work of taste. 
There then follows the fourth, and it is a most important 
question — Are these courses of masonry where we now 
find them — in their original^ their primeval position ; or 
have these blocks been dislodged, and overthrown, and 
scattered, and in some after-time reassembled and made 



408 THE MODERN JERUSALEM 

use of bj the builders of a later period ? This last is 
often the determinative inquiry, in relation to doubtful 
points of history ; and in the instance just now before 
us, it has a peculiar significance, inasmuch as there is 
reason to conjecture that some, at least, of the ponderous 
masses — the prodigious blocks, whereupon the hetero- 
geneous structures of the modern Jerusalem take their 
rest — have been dislodged, upheaved, turned about, and 
again replaced, as at first, more than once or twice in 
the lapse of ages. 

To the first of the above-named questions our answer 
is easy; — the material of the ancient Jerusalem was 
drawn from quarries quite near at hand : it is the 
lime-stone rock of the very site of the city. This 
has always, been, supposed ; and the fact has lately 
been more fully ascertained by the explorations, of 
Dr. Barclay,* an American physician, and long a re- 
sident at Jerusalem. Within the vast caverns that 
undermine Bezetha, and at a great depth below the sur- 
face of the present city, the mother-rock shows, beyond 
a doubt, what masses have been hewn from it, namely, 
those large blocks, sixty feet in length, which underlie 
the Haram wall, and the city wall, in many places, 
and much of the interior of the city. In those caverns, 
such as we now find them, these blocks were squared, 
and their edges bevelled, and their surfaces — the upper 
and the under, were nicely prepared for their adjust- 
ments, according to the methods of a highly refined 
masonic art. As to this art of the luilder, it is such as 
* « City of the Great King." 



AND ITS ANCIENT PEOPLE. 409 

could have Ibeen practised loj none but a people well 
advanced in practical intelligence, and that were in the 
enjoyment of the opulence and the tranquillity proper 
to a secure political condition. The mason's work 
which is peculiar to, and characteristic of, the cyclopean 
substructures of the Haram, and the ancient city wall, 
is of a kind that fixes attention when once it has been 
seen, and it is such as speaks its remote origin almost 
as intelligibly as an inscription could do. 

The architectural characteristics of Jerusalem, as 
well of the ancient, as the modern city, cannot but be 
intelligible to those who are conversant with this branch 
of antiquarian lore. We easily read the various fortunes 
of the city, indicated right and left, in-doors and out 
of doors, scattered upon the surface, and deep in wells, 
tanks, and caverns, built into walls, and confusedly 
mixed with the chiselled labours of the workmen of 
other ages. The one source of ambiguity is that which 
arises from these disorderly commixtures, when a frag- 
ment, a capital, an entablature, which is manifestly 
Koman, or Byzantine, or Norman, stands so transfixed 
upon a structure whereupon it is embedded, as to conceal 
what might indicate the chronology of the earlier work. 
Nevertheless, amid many such indeterminable questions, 
there can be no question on the general ground, that, in 
and among the architectural remains of Jerusalem, we 
are looking at specimens of the builder's art, in all the 
stages, and in all the styles and fashions that have 
belonged to it, from the most remote times to the latest. 

As to the fourth of the above-named heads of inquiry^ 



410 THE MODERN JERUSALEM 

fiill of historic significance as it is, a solution of the 
problems belonging to it must await a time when this 
site shall yield itself up, without reserve or restraint, to 
the industry and intelligence of European antiquarians. 

We have need to be reminded of the fact, that, as we 
become familiar with the books of the Old Testament in 
childhood, it is not until years later that we learn to 
correct the wrong chronological conceptions which have 
arisen from the misadjustment of them as to their order 
of time. These early erroneous notions continue to 
haunt the imagination^ perhaps through life, and we 
lose sight of, or quite forget the fact that a period of four 
or five hundred years intervenes between prophets that 
take their turn to be read, in the mornings and evenings 
of a week. Under the misguidance of these chronological 
errors, we are likely to carry forward, into the era of a 
people's maturity, conceptions which belong only to the 
age of their patriarchal and nomadic simplicity. Some 
few instructed readers of the Bible may be quite exempt 
from any such misconceptions ; but probably it is many 
that are subject to them. Moreover, the grave tones of 
the inspired writers, and their singleness of purpose, so 
unlike the conventional and sophisticated manner of other 
writers, favours the idea that the Hebrew nation con- 
tinued, from age to age, to live on in a condition of 
pastoral simplicity. 

Such was far from being their condition ; and a more 
attentive perusal of the historical books of the Old 
Testament, and of the prophets, will suggest, and more 
than merely suggest the belief, that this ancient people 



AND ITS ANCIENT PEOPLE, 411 

had reached a stage of advancement in the arts of life — 
substantial and decorative — ^which places them_, at the 
least, on a level with any people that were their neigh- 
bours and contemporaries, or of any that are known to 
us by their records and by their monuments. It is true 
that we are used to think of Solomon's temple as a 
magnificent structure ; and yet the descriptions given of 
it in the Books of Kings and Chronicles, convey an 
impression rather of its metallic splendour and its 
richness of decoration, than of the cyclopean style of the 
masonry that sustained it. Was it, in truth, a great 
work in an architectural sense ? This question admits of 
a probable answer. The series of prophets, in discharge 
of their function as the reprovers of national sins, men- 
tion and rebuke the sumptuous style and the luxurious 
manners of those who then were the princes of the 
people ; yet they make no boast, as if they were proud 
of the wealth, and the arts, and the instructed skill of 
their countrymen. Nevertheless there occur, in many 
parts of the prophetic writings, incidental allusions to 
the splendour of the private structures of the city — 
houses of hewn stone, houses ceiled with costly woods, 
decorated with ivory and gold, and fitted up with every 
device which elaborate luxury might ask for, are spoken 
of even by some of the earlier prophets. We must 
believe, therefore, that the Jerusalem of the ancient 
monarchy was a city of palaces and of princely mansions, 
in constructing which no cost had been spared. 

Here, then, the two portions of an inferential argu- 
ment come into contact ; and it is just at the basement 



412 THE MODERN JEEUSALEM 

line of tlie palaces and the mansions of tlie ancient 
Jerusalem that they do so. The juncture is of this 
sort ; — we hold in our hand the various literature of an 
ancient people ; this literature has traversed the fields oi 
time in those several modes of conveyance to which, in 
the preceding pages, we have given attention; it has 
thus come into our hands safely ; it stands attested 
in modes so many and so sure, that now to speak of it 
as if it were questionable would be a mere prudery and 
an affectation. Up and down throughout these writings 
we find incidental notices of the sumptuous style of the 
upper classes of the people, in their modes of living, and 
in the decoration of their public and private buildings ; 
at least it is so as to what were the visible parts of such 
structures. The kings and the nobles of the Hebrew 
monarchy were men of great wealth ; ample revenues 
were at their command, and they spent their incomes 
magnificently. Looking to the documents — the parch- 
ment rolls — the volumes of the prophets of those ages, 
such are the inferences we must derive from them. 

But what objects are those that present themselves 
when, with the pick in hand, we go down to the levels of 
the ancient Jerusalem ? What we there find are courses 
of highly- wrought masonry, with which, as to the dimen- 
sions of the single blocks, and the labour that has been 
bestowed upon them, nothing can be compared unless it 
be in Egypt and at Palmyra. The inference is valid, 
namely^ that the people of this city — even those whose 
structures, sacred and domestic, underlie the monuments 
of eight or nine successive empires or kingdoms — the 



AND ITS ANCIENT PEOPLE. 413 

primeval people — must have Leen wealthy, and far 
advanced in the arts, and large also in their conceptions, 
and bold in their enterprises. They were a people great 
and well civilised, and they were so at a time when, as 
the Greek historian tells us, the ancestors of his nation 
were petty marauders by sea and land, and were feeding 
upon acorns ! 

Such are the conclusions which we arrive at after a 
careful perusal of the literature of the Hebrew people, 
if now, at this day — and yet it is in a sense which 
he did not intend — we listen to the invitation of one 
of its poets, who challenges us to '* Walk about Zion, 
and to go round about her," and to '' tell the towers 
thereof, and to mark well her bulwarks, and to consider 
her palaces ;" for in doing so we shall find the means for 
confirming ourselves in those convictions, the strength of 
which concerns each of us in the most intimate manner. 



THE END. 



B. CLAY, PRINTER, BREAD STREET HILL. 



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